Report: Public Interest Groups Outspent on Tax Issues

A new report from Public Citizen says that public interest groups working on tax reform are being vastly outspent by corporate lobbyists and PACs.

According to a story in The Huffington Post:

Some reform-minded groups are lobbying in favor of these bills, notes Public Citizen. But they are being drowned out by the lobbying in the other direction.

Of the 383 lobbyists working over lawmakers on these bills, 331 were from companies or corporate trade groups opposed to them, by Public Citizen's count.

Meanwhile, the companies and groups lobbying on these bills are represented by 46 different political action committees that donated money to lawmakers in the 2012 election cycle, according to Public Citizen. Of that group, 40 PACs represented corporate America and spent $20 million on their favorite candidates. The top three money-donating PACs in this group were the National Association of Realtors, the Credit Union National Association and the American Bankers Association.

According to the report, these spending patterns help explain why corporate profits have risen to all-time highs at the same time that corporate income tax payments have fallen to an all-time low.

Source: Public Citizen

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