Andrew Yang: Elizabeth Warren's lobbyist tax 'will do next to nothing'
Andrew Yang believes that the financial impact that lobbying has on politics and government should be curtailed. But the Democratic presidential candidate doesn’t think that merely taxing lobbyists will have much of an impact, proposing a deeper attack on the foundation of the lobbying industry.
Against the backdrop of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s, D-Mass., proposal this week to tax lobbyists as much as 75 percent, Yang agreed with his fellow Democratic presidential candidate about the need to curtail money’s impact throughout the political system. He said, however, that Warren’s proposal doesn’t go far enough.
Via his social media channels on Thursday morning, Yang said more needs to be done than simply slapping the wrist of lobbyists with a tax. Of Warren's proposal, Yang tweeted that, given the exponential return lobbyists receive for their money, that Warren's plan of "a tax of 35-75% will do next to nothing."
“A mild tax would just make lobbying slightly more expensive,” Yang tweeted. “You would either need to make the tax greater than 100,000% - or 1,000x - or prohibit lobbying entirely. Or you could flood the system with people-powered money and tie legislators to the public.”
Yang continued, suggesting that citizens be given $100 annually to contribute to political campaigns of their choosing. He called the American voter “our most powerful lobbyists.”
Term limits was another issue in Yang’s scope on Thursday, noting that special interests could and should be limited through term limits.
“One way to free up legislators from corporate interests is term limits. Right now legislators spend decades in DC trying to stay in power,” Yang said in one of his tweets. “With term limits you would be free to vote on behalf of your constituents because you are returning home soon anyway.”
The United States Chamber of Commerce spends the most on political lobbying, having invested $94 million in 2018. The National Association of Realtors ($72.8 million) and the Open Society Policy Center ($31.5 million) round out the top three lobbyists for last year.