GOP/LOBBYING/TAXES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The sweeping tax rewrite unveiled by President Trump and Republican lawmakers this past week leaves many of the details to Congress, but two sentences in the nine-page framework have Washington lobbyists salivating over a payday that some industry experts predict could top $1 billion.
Tucked away on Page 8, the sentences refer vaguely to plans to repeal or roll back ‘numerous’ exclusions and deductions, and to ‘modernize’ tax rules affecting specific industries ‘to ensure that the tax code better reflects economic reality and that such rules provide little opportunity for tax avoidance.’
That language has prompted concerns among a wide range of businesses and industries about the prospect of losing valuable tax breaks — from preferential tax treatment for insurers to credits for renewable energy to a prized tax treatment used by the commercial real estate industry.
And those fears are being stoked by lobbyists, who are urging clients and prospective clients to get out in front of any changes that could eliminate or weaken sections of the tax code that benefit them…
There is some irony in Mr. Trump’s setting off a surge in lobbying spending, given his campaign promise to ‘drain the swamp’ in the nation’s capital, partly by taking on special interests. But there is perhaps no federal law that has been lobbied as assiduously as the tax code. Its thousands of pages contain countless provisions inserted at the behest of specific groups that have an interest in protecting their benefits.”
-Kenneth P. Vogel, “How Two Sentences in Tax Plan May Help Unleash $1 Billion in Lobbying,” The New York Times online, Sept. 30, 2017