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It's always difficult for me to give the Bush
Administration credit, even when it's due, but today I simply have to do so. For
today we read that the Administration has come up with an incredibly effective
way to reduce the corrosive influence of corporate lobbyists on our legislators
and regulators.
The solution to the problem of corruption was blindingly obvious, in retrospect. Think about it. Why do lobbyists feel the need to corrupt our legislators and regulators? Because they want the laws changed in ways that benefit their clients, right? Of course! The problem is apparent. The legislators and regulatores stand between the lobbyists and the laws that they want. The solution is also obvious. Simply cut the legislators and regulators out of the process and the whole raison d'etre for corruption is eliminated. Simple and effective, and that's just what the Administration has done, at least when it comes to the business of writing those boring, complicated tax rules:
The Internal Revenue Service is asking tax lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes to take the lead in writing some of its new tax rules.
The pilot project represents a further expansion of the increasingly common federal government practice of asking outsiders to do more of its work, prompting academics and other critics to complain that the government is going too far.
Typical of the Administration critics to complain about every brilliant innovation it comes up with. Get this, one "critic" says “It’s not the fox guarding the hen house; it’s the fox designing the hen house,” Well, I ask you, if the whole point is to get the fox into the henhouse, who better to do the design work? And the nifty thing about this, as Atrios points out, is that only the foxes will be able to figure out how to get into the henhouse, because they'll design the code so we mere mortals will have no chance of figuring it out without a fox to guide us. That keeps the hens nice and safe for plucking by the favored few, while the rest of us merely get plucked.
The solution to the problem of corruption was blindingly obvious, in retrospect. Think about it. Why do lobbyists feel the need to corrupt our legislators and regulators? Because they want the laws changed in ways that benefit their clients, right? Of course! The problem is apparent. The legislators and regulatores stand between the lobbyists and the laws that they want. The solution is also obvious. Simply cut the legislators and regulators out of the process and the whole raison d'etre for corruption is eliminated. Simple and effective, and that's just what the Administration has done, at least when it comes to the business of writing those boring, complicated tax rules:
The Internal Revenue Service is asking tax lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes to take the lead in writing some of its new tax rules.
The pilot project represents a further expansion of the increasingly common federal government practice of asking outsiders to do more of its work, prompting academics and other critics to complain that the government is going too far.
Typical of the Administration critics to complain about every brilliant innovation it comes up with. Get this, one "critic" says “It’s not the fox guarding the hen house; it’s the fox designing the hen house,” Well, I ask you, if the whole point is to get the fox into the henhouse, who better to do the design work? And the nifty thing about this, as Atrios points out, is that only the foxes will be able to figure out how to get into the henhouse, because they'll design the code so we mere mortals will have no chance of figuring it out without a fox to guide us. That keeps the hens nice and safe for plucking by the favored few, while the rest of us merely get plucked.
Posted: Friday - March 09, 2007 at 08:11 PM
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Published On: Apr 17, 2007 07:20 PM
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Published On: Apr 17, 2007 07:20 PM