Opinion Elizabeth Warren proposes taxing First Amendment rights - "First amendment rights" in this article means lobbying, by the way

Elizabeth Warren proposes taxing First Amendment rights

If you like the idea of taxing the exercising of First Amendment rights, well, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren now has a plan for that.

www.washingtonexaminer.com

If you like the idea of taxing the exercising of First Amendment rights, well, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren now has a plan for that.

Warren on Wednesday unveiled a plan she claimed would end excessive lobbying by imposing a tax on companies' lobbying expenditures. The way the tax would work is that "companies that spend between $500,000 and $1 million per year on lobbying, calculated on a quarterly basis, will pay a 35% tax on those expenditures. For every dollar above $1 million spent on lobbying, the rate will increase to 60% – and for every dollar above $5 million, it will increase to 75%."

The problem with the proposal is that it runs smack up against the First Amendment, which states that, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people ... to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Given that businesses have the constitutional right to lobby, Congress cannot pass a law explicitly aimed at curbing their ability to exercise that right by way of a punitive tax.

If that were the case, a federal government frustrated with media coverage could levy special taxes on publishing or could crack down on protesters by imposing a punitive tax on protesting.

As lawyer Ted Frank put it, "There’s a legal reason Republicans haven’t tried to curb abortion by taxing it, and it’s not just because they don’t like taxes."

This proposal is just your regular reminder that Warren is a policy fraud. She churns out proposals that generate oohs and aahs from the media, yet they barely stand up to the most basic scrutiny. The crowning achievement of her career — the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — itself was ruled structurally unconstitutional in federal court.

Curbing lobbying is a worthy goal. But the way to curb lobbying is to shrink the power of the federal government over the economy, so that changes to taxes, spending, and regulations in Washington do not have such a dramatic influence on the fortunes of corporations.

 

[Duke Nukem]

Does this include left wing boondoggles or are there various bullshit exemptions for things she likes?

I think we all know that answer, considering past events.

 

[Y2K Baby]

She knows her shit when it comes to financial law & limiting corporate power. I wish she were this smart about troons.

You need to be spanked. Naughty, naughty libtard.

 

[Coccxys]

Does this include left wing boondoggles or are there various bullshit exemptions for things she likes?

They'll just make an official "advisor" designation and hand it out to groups like the SPLC then say "no it's totally not lobbying, they're advising us".

 

[Sissy Galvez]

She’s an idiot, focus on reversing citizens united. That won’t happen because Congress is a joke.

 

[heyilikeyourmom]

Does anyone else think this seems like DNC/Clinton plot? Bernie, Biden, and Warren aka the three Democratic frontrunners going down in one week seems like one hell of a coincidence.

It’s only a matter of time before she announces her candidacy.

 

[Feline Darkmage]

NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

Edit: "...the power to tax is the power to destroy". Thank you @verissimus for the quick history lesson. Linked if you're interested to read the full article.

Lobbyists have way more representation than regular folks because they can literally buy representatives away. If they want to own more politicians they should have less money tbh.

They're lucky that it's not your average joes and janes that are posting online about hoping they get guillotined yet.

 

[break these cuffs]

Lobbyists have way more representation than regular folks because they can literally buy representatives away. If they want to own more politicians they should have less money tbh.

They're lucky that it's not your average joes and janes that are posting online about hoping they get guillotined yet.

I don't know about you, but plenty of friends and family I know "joke" about the need to string up lobbyist and politicians both. You can find it unironically posted all over social media too. Not specific threats of course, but the corruption has been an accepted open secret for decades. Nobody will do anything because we're too comfortable. A hipster who gets their vegan fairtrade imitation cheese delivered by amazon drones doesn't start a revolution. A redneck drinking a budlight while he BBQs and watches the race on his smartphone doesn't start a revolution. The working poor and destitute have enough access to drugs and alcohol that they're effectively subdued.

 

[TFT-A9]

This will absolutely never be abused/leveled against opposition whenever convenient

Don't worry, my friends, you can trust government not to overreach

 

[Y2K Baby]

I don't know about you, but plenty of friends and family I know "joke" about the need to string up lobbyist and politicians both. You can find it unironically posted all over social media too. Not specific threats of course, but the corruption has been an accepted open secret for decades. Nobody will do anything because we're too comfortable. A hipster who gets their vegan fairtrade imitation cheese delivered by amazon drones doesn't start a revolution. A redneck drinking a budlight while he BBQs and watches the race on his smartphone doesn't start a revolution. The working poor and destitute have enough access to drugs and alcohol that they're effectively subdued.

Revolution is for suicidal baguettes.

 

[break these cuffs]

Revolution is for suicidal baguettes.

And rich slave owning, wig wearing, WHITE MALES

 

[Y2K Baby]

And rich slave owning, wig wearing, WHITE MALES

Literally one of the only good revolutions because it was made by people willing to compromise instead of beheading each other.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Yeah, what a cunt.

 

[OneEyedCool]

Hot take: This is a shit idea because lobbyists are essential to the American political process and they dindu nuthin wrong. It is impossible for elected officials and their staff to be experts in on the massive swathe of policy issues they will need to make informed decisions on, and lobbyists are key to helping to fill in knowledge gaps on extremely important but obscure and/or exceedingly complex policy matters.

Lobbies represent the self interest groups, or selfish interest groups, so therefore, all will be biased, and whose bias is the most important?


Conservatives should support Warren on this to tax away all the free speech of liberal lobbies.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

I don't know about you, but plenty of friends and family I know "joke" about the need to string up lobbyist and politicians both. You can find it unironically posted all over social media too. Not specific threats of course, but the corruption has been an accepted open secret for decades. Nobody will do anything because we're too comfortable. A hipster who gets their vegan fairtrade imitation cheese delivered by amazon drones doesn't start a revolution. A redneck drinking a budlight while he BBQs and watches the race on his smartphone doesn't start a revolution. The working poor and destitute have enough access to drugs and alcohol that they're effectively subdued.

The working poor have a high enough quality of life they don't want to eat the rich. Here's why that's a bad thing:

 

[Ashy the Angel]

You don't tax lobbyists. You publicly execute them.

 

[XYZpdq]

Okay so you get rid of lobbyists and then what? Yeah they're jerks but "pool your money with like minded spastics and send a spastic to DC to hype your pet shit" has been a way for those of us with better shit to do than live in DC and hassle politicians to get things heard for a long time. While it's easy to scapegoat the ones who are crooked there's also a lot that are just trying to get a message out that a bunch of people want said.

 

[MembersSchoolPizza]

You don't tax lobbyists. You publicly execute them.

I hope I don't live long enough to see your Marxist revolution. But I hope you do.

 

[Y2K Baby]

I hope I don't live long enough to see your Marxist revolution. But I hope you do.

It won't happen.

 

[The Pink Panther]

You don't tax lobbyists. You publicly execute them.

Yikes.

Truly a sign of the future American Communist Revolution of 2025 when the Republic forms itself into an Empire. Viva El Lenin.

 

[TFT-A9]

You don't tax lobbyists. You publicly execute them.

You should totally go do that in Minecraft