Via the Washington Post, President Bush is considering a corporate tax cut at a time when an economic downturn appears to be underway. One reason to distrust Mr. Bush's response is that this is how he and other conservatives react to everything these days.

More good news from the private equity/hedge fund tax loophole debate today as Shawn Fremstad over at inclusionist.org points out two very wealthy, successful private equity managers are speaking out in favor of closing the loophole. William Stanfill, the founding partner and head of a Trailhead Ventures, and William Gross, the managing director of PIMCO, an incredibly successful bond investment firm that invests $687 billion in assets, have both gone on record, and quite eloquently at that, to say they believe they should be paying the same tax rates anyone else does on their income. Stanfill spoke up as a witness during the Senate Finance committee's latest hearing investigating this topic. Here's one of many excellent and candid passages from his testimony: I can understand why many in my industry want to preserve this special tax advantage. Clearly, it has served US and ME well. The tax subsidy each year to private equity fund, hedge fund, and venture capital fund managers is in the billions of dollars. But I think this special tax break is neither fair nor equitable. After all, a gifted teacher who is training and inspiring and challenging our children and enriching human capital gets no such special treatment. And Gross published his views in a lengthy, but well written monthly column called Investment Outlook that he writes. Gross says: What farce, then, to give credence to current debate as to whether private equity and hedge fund managers will be properly incented if Congress moves to raise their taxes up to levels paid by the majority of America's middle class. What pretense to assert, as did Kenneth Griffin, recipient last year of more than $1 billion in compensation as manager of the Citadel Investment Group, that "the (current) income distribution has to stand. If the tax became too high, as a matter of principle I would not be working this hard." Right. Right indeed Mr. Gross. Kudos to you and Mr. Stanfill! Let's hope more people (including those in Congress) have the same good sense on this issue.

Congress Passes Sweeping Lobbying and Ethics Reforms After a year-long debate and negotiations over enacting lobbying and ethics reforms, Congress finally passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (S. 1). While not an ideal set of reforms, the new law is the most significant lobbying and ethics reform in a decade and should make important strides in increasing accountability and transparency in Washington. Senate Committees OK Nussle

The difference in priorities between Congress and the president became quite stark last week the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis. Although the president was quick to sign a bill authorizing $250 million in emergency spending to rebuild the bridge, he is far less concerned with the infrastructure in the rest of the nation. And this lack of concern is manifest in the budget fight between him and Congress. On the eve of passage of Transportation-HUD funding bill by House, the president issued a veto threat decrying increased funding for the interstate highway system: