Blog - Obama Budget Takes on Oil, Hedge Fund Subsidies

These two items from Nicole Allan’s “Winners and Losers” analysis of Obama’s 2011 budget would be major victories for the Democrats if Congress follows through and enacts them:

2) Hedge-fund and private equity employees will supply $24 billion over 10 years by having their fees taxed as income rather than capital gains…

3) Oil, gas, and coal companies would cough up $40 billion after the elimination of some Bush-era tax breaks.

These are two big corporate subsidies that the Democrats have been trying to get rid of ever since taking control Congress in 2007. But the fact that they target big industries — oil and finance — has been an impediment to getting these subsidies repealed. Big industry = big political influence, and after the recent Citizens United v. FEC ruling form the Supreme Court the political influence regulatory structure has been tipped even further in the direction of corporate interests.