Dems Fighting Over Tax Loophole For Money Managers

[Joanne98]

The Democratic effort to raise revenue for a jobs bill by closing a tax loophole that benefits money managers is running into opposition within the party itself as details are being worked out.

Two Senate Democrats, John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), are pressing Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to treat certain fund managers different than others. Last week, Baucus agreed with House Ways and Means Chairman Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) that the "carried interest" loophole would be closed to pay for a jobs package of unemployment benefits, tax extenders.

The Senate is crafting its legislation this week and Democrats spent much of their weekly Tuesday lunch discussing the issue, said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who added that no decision on details has been reached.

Murray has been lobbying for an exemption for venture capitalists and with Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.).

They're joined by Cantwell. "I think there's a difference in the business models between venture capital, people who do job creation and lose money for a whole long period of time, sometimes as many as 18 or 20 years, and people who just make money because they're financial engineers. I'm a little tired of the financial engineers, the people who are just making money off of money, telling everybody here what to do, versus people who actually make a product or a service," Cantwell told HuffPost.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/dems-fighting-over-tax-lo_n_581711.html

They're still not listening!

[Jefferson23]

1. They're not listening and may pay for it too. n/t