The Washington Post reported on the emergency mobilization of the nation's leading lobbyists to thwart bills that would tax the compensation of equity and hedge fund managers at the same rates as the wages of school teachers and firefighters. Currently, these managers get to defer taxes on their compensation by rolling it back into the funds they manage, and then eventually just pay the 15 percent capital gains tax rate.
The Post apparently decided to join the lobbying effort. It described the compensation of these fund managers as "profits." Of course the issue is not how profits that these managers earn on their investments will be taxed (they would pay the 15 percent capital gains rate on profits), the issue is how the money they earn from their management fees will be taxed.
A second Trump administration will cement a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court for a generation, and put our collective future in the hands of someone who will be virtually unchecked by our institutions. The country has shifted rightward, and the reverberations will ensue for potentially the next few decades. In this climate, a robust independent media ecosystem will be more important than ever. We're committed to bringing you the latest news on how Trump's agenda will actually affect the American people, shining a light on the stories corporate media overlooks and keeping the public informed about how power really works in this country.
Quality journalism is expensive to produce, and we don't have corporate backers to rely on to fund what we do. Everything we do is thanks to our incredible community of readers, who chip in a few dollars at a time to make our work possible. Any amount you give today will help us continue reporting on what matters to our democracy.
