Taxes

GOP Tax Writers Are Leaving Congress to Make Money On Tax Cuts

Written by SK Ashby

The Republican congressional staffers who actually put pen to paper and wrote the GOP's vague and in some cases indecipherable tax code are leaving Congress to make a lot of money on the tax cuts they wrote.

The former staffers are joining high profile law firms that will be enlisted by the business community to obtain the lowest possible tax bills under the new law.

At least a half dozen high-profile GOP staffers have departed or are departing Capitol Hill, swapping jobs in the legislative branch for plum postings at firms like Akin Gump and Squire Patton Boggs.

The exile from Congress includes top aides for the House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee, and the offices of Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). [...]

"The old adage that there are two things true in life, taxes and death? It's really true. There's going to be a lot to do in implementing the tax law and these tax staffers will be incredibly useful in navigating those tricky waters," [McCormick Group principal Ivan Adler] added.

Yes, they will be "incredibly useful" in "navigating" the new "tricky" code because they wrote it.

I'm not going to say the code was intentionally written to be "tricky" so these men could leave Congress behind and make money interpreting the tricky code they wrote, but I think we can say with confidence that tax code is sometimes intentionally written to be vague.

That's where lobbyists and law firms come in. Republicans in Congress know that only people who can afford to hire posh firms like Squire Patton Boggs will be able to navigate the new code but that's who it was written for anyway. It's not for the little people.