Birnbaum got away with it, and his book hits the stores just as
lobbyists are gearing up to pick Clinton's proposals to death. The main
issues pursued by Birnbaum's lobbyists are tax breaks for big business;
these include capital gains cuts for corporations, pressure from trucking
associations to keep the gas tax low, and sundry esoteric loopholes for
special interests and industries. All lobbyists earn huge salaries, as a
tiny change in the tax code can mean megabucks for the corporations that
employ them. So the lobbyists spread around even more money -- to pay think-
tank professors to produce studies proving their positions, and for PR to
disguise the effects of proposals. (For example, capital gains cuts are not
tax breaks for the wealthy, but simply a well-intentioned effort to put
more into research and development so that America doesn't lose its
technological advantage.) Plenty of money is also used to buy access to
congressmen; these, of course, are called "campaign contributions."
ISBN 0-8129-2086-4
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