Hillary Comes Out...for Taxing Carry as Income

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=2396

The "Don't get me wrong..." line can be read as "Please don't cancel your fundraiser, Mr. Rattner"...

Seriously, though, I am surprised by the speed with which a consensus has emerged on this. Some of that is probably due to the relative incompetence/naivete with which the industry has approached the political process. (Sending Mr. Kravis up to the Hill is not having the intended effect...)

An underlying factor may be the weakening of the alliance between high finance and the Republican party. The PE industry doesn't have friends in Republican party like they used to.

What's amazing is that a cursory review of Mitt.com reveals no effort from the Republican party's official spokesman for this guy (and him, and him) to defend the current tax policy. I remember a time (*sniff*) when the 'publicans would be crawling all over one another for a shot at declaring Democrats as "for a Tax Increase" - but not a peep from The Haircut. Or the Non-Haircut either.

All of that having been said, I still don't think it becomes law. I suppose I could see it passing the Congress, being vetoed and failing to make the 2/3 - but even that seems unlikely. For one thing, Chuck has already made his concerns clear. And there are a lot of Democrats who will do fundraisers in the PE and IM industry as election day approaches, and too many ways for the Senate to scuttle it. (Btw: Committee Chairman Dodd has been surprisingly quiet on the issue...thankfully, Chairman Baucus looks forward to a spirited discussion...)

But the industry's relatively weak PR skills, and the de minimus $ at stake (HC says $4-$6 billion, or .2% of federal spending) makes it an ideal summer punching bag for presidential candidates...

ps - The title was not intended to drive traffic from those seeking more prurient HRC stories...but I'll take it!