| > They can't just call up their lobbyist who's already scheduled to golf with a congressman every other weekend and tell them to bring it up on their next trip. I think you're vastly underestimating the impact of lobbying and overestimating the cost https://www.npr.org/transcripts/708195702 Tax Professor wants to try to get a policy (automatically filled out tax returns for CA state taxes)he thinks will be good for the public passed. He gets nowhere. Hires a lobbyist at a discount > BANKMAN: They gave me a deal because they thought it would be kind of fun to work for this crazed professor. > VANEK SMITH: They were working for you, just you? > BANKMAN: Yeah. They were working for me. And so the normal price, I think, would have been $140,000 to get Mike's services. But he gave it to me for only 35. So I paid 35,000, I believe. Got a lot closer (opt in automatic filling) despite massive opposition from anti tax groups and tax prep software lobbyists |
(+): I'm not personally a Grover Norquist fan, but he's influential because a lot of Americans really don't like taxes, and the argument that people will be more opposed to taxes if they're more burdensome does seem internally consistent.