This is the perfect story for our time: hedge fund managers already enjoyed such a big tax loophole that they didn’t benefit that much from Republicans’ latest tax cut, and now they’re mad about it https://t.co/MQyL1oBkZR pic.twitter.com/xEfAYn3XRN
— Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) May 14, 2018
Much more of a symbolic protest than an actual boycott, of course; if not to the Repubs, where are a bunch of bloodthirsty economic parasites gonna go?
…As national Republicans scramble their resources for a high-stakes midterm election year, some of the party’s biggest and most reliable donors have quietly withheld their support for Senate and House Republican groups out of frustration with the new tax law, CNN has learned…
…[S]ome of the Republican Party’s powerhouse donors in fact feel deeply stung by the law and have made their displeasure known to party leaders by keeping their wallets shut, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, who spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity. Although some of the donors have not sworn off contributions to individual campaigns or even the Republican National Committee, all have so far withheld contributions to the House and Senate Republican campaign arms — which are key players in the 2018 midterm elections — as a way to send a message over the law.
The donors who have boycotted, all of whom are leaders of prominent hedge funds, include Paul Singer, of Elliott Management; Citadel’s Ken Griffin; Warren Stephens of Stephens Inc.; Cliff Asness of AQR; Bruce Kovner, formerly of Caxton; and Third Point’s Daniel Loeb. Combined, their donations accounted for more than $50 million to Republican groups during the 2016 election cycle; Singer ranked among the top 10 donors of either party, while Griffin and Stephens ranked in the top 20.
Collectively, they have bristled at what they view as favored treatment for corporations under the law. While the corporate tax rate was slashed from 35% to 21%, hedge funds are largely taxed at the top individual rate, which ticked down from 39.6% to 37%…
Although Singer has donated six figures to the Republican National Committee this year and has given directly to the campaigns of Reps. Martha Roby and Claudia Tenney, he has uncharacteristically not donated to groups supporting House and Senate Republicans. Stephens’ only engagement has been maxing out to a few congressional campaigns in Arkansas, his home state. Griffin has not donated to any federal campaigns or committees this year, according to FEC data, although a source familiar with his thinking said donations to congressional candidates and national Republicans are forthcoming.
Asness donated $250,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund last year, in addition to more than six figures to the NRCC — but has not given since Trump signed the tax law. Loeb has supported Mitt Romney’s Senate campaign in Utah and Roby’s reelection bid but has not opened his wallet for any national Republican groups. And Kovner has not donated this year to federal candidates or committees — after last year giving six-figure sums to the NRSC and Speaker Paul Ryan’s PAC…
By 35, you should have twice your salary saved, according to retirement experts: https://t.co/QoVA6EFpHJ
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) May 12, 2018
Caveat lector: Since shortly after a deranged kleptocratic racist took control of the government of the republic, retirement professionals no longer owe you a fiduciary duty–even when you give them twice your salary or whatever to invest in blockchain beverage companies. https://t.co/nzE4ZRzykD
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) May 14, 2018
ruemara
Winning & still assholes.
Chet Murthy
I thought those carrion-birds were paying at long-term capital gains rate due to the carried-interest loophole? WTF is their damage?
NotMax
FYI.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
I have got no problem with them picking up their balls and going home. Less GOP slush more GOP flush.
Gin & Tonic
Late night open thread is mid-morning open thread from Yurp as I slowly finish my coffee here in Stavanger. Another completely uncharacteristic glorious sunny day, which I enjoy, while it unfortunately exacerbates major flooding issues in southern Norway due to the too-rapid snowmelt.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Early evening here.
John Revolta
What is the big tax loophole that the assholes already enjoyed? It’s not mentioned in the article………………
WereBear
It will never dawn on the average RepubliFascist that there shouldn’t be a need of millions of dollars to get elected; they like to think their $50 is their POWAH.
TenguPhule
@John Revolta:
Most of their income gets taxed as investment income, not earned income.
So max tax rate capped at 20% instead of 39%
TenguPhule
I don’t think this gets mentioned enough.
News that isn’t required to be news, investment brokers who have no duty of care, yeah this story doesn’t have a happy ending.
WereBear
@TenguPhule: And it is not like the bar was ever set that high, either. Madoff was deliberately not investigated during the W administration.
Litlebritdifrnt
@NotMax: 8:30 a.m. here.
Shalimar
Strange that Martha Roby, who represents a mostly rural district that includes a lot of the Alabama capitol, would be a hedge fund darling. There is nothing I see in a quick reading of her public positions that explains this. She is a bog-standard, 98% Trump-voting Congresswoman despite unendorsing him after the pussy-grabbing tape came out.
TenguPhule
@WereBear: Tell me about it. Its essentially making theft of the investor’s money legal.
People are going to be left with no legal recourse against these bad actors.
TenguPhule
@Shalimar:
She must be getting dirty money from somewhere obviously.
Sab
@Chet Murthy: There is never enough for these folks. Normal people have jobs, and do stuff, and accomplish goals and create things.
For these people a normal job is amassing wealth.That is all they do. They have no other values. That is how they judge everyone and each other.
Chet Murthy
@Sab: Look on the bright side. Compared to HFT (High Frequency Trading) guys, these hedgies are practically SAINTS!
mark
Most companies doing business overseas are American companies exploiting cheap labor. Trump tries to portray China as being the main beneficiary of this relationship and portraying China as the villain. The reality is, the biggest winners are the stockholders of companies like Apple, Carrier, etc. The profits all flow to the owners of these companies.
The question I have is, will the Buffoon slap tariffs on these companies and kill their profits? I say it won’t happen. The stock market seems to agree with me, stock prices are higher than ever, earnings are better than ever. Further evidence is the owners of these companies were also the biggest winners in the recent tax cuts. The benefits of the tax cuts were aimed at the top 1%.
Viva BrisVegas
@Sab:
I think you mean interposing themselves in financial transactions in order to skim from the top.
WereBear
@Viva BrisVegas: Yep, we’ve moved from “empire building” to “flat out piracy.”
They don’t know how to generate money. All they do is spot big piles of it, and plot about how to make it legal to steal it.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: My step-mother is going there in the fall. That is where my Everetson family came from!
Gin & Tonic
@raven: This is probably late, but as Mose says, you better bring some cash. This place is eye-wateringly expensive. I mean Norway in general, and Stavanger more so.
J R in WV
@Gin & Tonic: Have you been to Paris, or Florence, Italy?
They seemed to be an average big city to me.
debbie
Wah, wah, wah.
Spaniel
@NotMax:
The numbers you show are correct as overall membership goes down when it comes to Protestant, but there are a couple of caveats to consider. The Barna Group has been following the religious groups and their trends for over 30-years now.
The overall membership numbers do show a decline, but the harder hit churches are more the mainstream denominations. Some of those members are moving to more consevative churches — more fundamentalists (in the definition tendencies, but also more in the social aspect too). The Barna Group also tracks people as they move to a more common group where they parrot certain moral and basic Christian tendencies but are lax when it comes to church attendance and holding more stringent Evangelical/Fundamentalist beliefs. These are what I call the modern Jonathan Edwards’ Galway-covenant group: they get some benefits as being identified as Christians but they get it own their own terms.
According to Barna’s numbers after the presidential election, Trump swept up most of these voters. A very wishy-wasn’t group that is not very grounded when it comes to its beliefs, as community, and very individualistic in not caring beyond their own and unique group (family and friends).
Spaniel
Halfway Covenent and not Galway Covenent.
Zinsky
Modern conservative orthodoxy, as promulgated by Randian disciples like Paul Ryan, holds that wealthy people are virtuous as a result of their wealth. We must therefore shower them with tax breaks, regulatory dispensations and all manner of lucre to growth this wealth and virtue. Poor people, on the other hand, lack virtues as evidenced by their demeanor and achievements in life and therefore must be punished for this lack of virtue by withholding even the most basic sustenance like food stamps, to teach them how utterly unworthy they really are. It is cruel, nonsensical and medieval, but that’s where the Republican Party is these days.
Collie Dad
I’m beginning to understand why French peasants cheered every time “la guillotine” lopped off the head of an aristocrat