"Ouch!"

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

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           OUCH! A Regular Bulletin on How Money in Politics Hurts You

      #7                        Public Campaign              July 28, 1998
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     "WE'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!"

     What Congress giveth, Congress also taketh away. Especially when
     Congress has a popular piece of legislation to move AND big campaign
     contributors are concerned. That's the lesson of the IRS reform bill,
     just signed by President Clinton last week.

     Some parts of the law will definitely help average taxpayers. For
     example, when taxpayers overpay their taxes the IRS will now pay them
     the same rate of interest that it charges when people underpay. But
     overall, its tax relief is skewed to the favored top five percent of
     all taxpayers [see OUCH#6]. Here's one example of how the new law will
     make sure you'll keep paying simply to do your taxes.

     Nineteen million people filed their taxes electronically last year.
     The new law calls on the IRS to try to quadruple that number in the
     next ten years. But, instead of directing the agency to produce more
     and better software free to the public, the legislation specifically
     carves out a protected arena for private software publishers--telling
     the agency to coordinate its plans with the private sector. Why? As
     the Wall Street Journal reported, lobbyists from Intuit Inc. and H&R
     Block Inc., two top makers of tax-preparation software, "argued the
     effort would undercut their franchise." (Can you imagine the
     publishers of all those how-to tax manuals demanding that the IRS stop
     printing and distributing free tax forms and guides because it took
     away from their business?)

     The bottom line: $39.95 if you purchase Intuit's "Turbotax" program;
     $19.95 for H&R Block's "TaxCut" software. (Plus the cost of buying a
     new, updated version of the program every year. And the long-distance
     charges for calling for help. The IRS doesn't charge for calls to its
     800 line--yet.)

     H&R Block has been a generous donor in recent years. It gave $58,250
     in soft money in the `95-'96 election cycle, split between the
     Democrats and Republicans, while its PAC and various employees gave
     another $67,290 to congressional candidates. In the current cycle, the
     company seems to have sworn off soft money, while its PAC and
     employees have already made some $32,750 in contributions. Meanwhile,
     Intuit CEO Scott Cook seems to be one truly turbo-charged donor: In
     '96 he gave $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee, plus another
     $1,000 to California Republican Tom Campbell. And in this cycle, as
     the drafting of the IRS bill heated up in the Senate Finance
     Committee, he gave $25,000 in soft money to the DNC, $5,000 to Senate
     Majority Leader Trent Lott's Leadership PAC, plus $2,000 to Republican
     Senator Al D'Amato and $1,000 to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle.
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     OUCH! is a regular e-mail bulletin on how private money in politics
     hurts average citizens, published by Public Campaign, a non-partisan,
     non-profit organization devoted to comprehensive campaign finance
     reform. Every day, we pay more as consumers and taxpayers for special
     interest subsidies and boondoggles because of our system of privately
     financed elections. It's time for a change.

     Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and
     join the growing movement for real campaign finance reform. If you
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========================================
Jack E. Lohman
Milwaukee, WI
jlohman@execpc.com
http://www.execpc.com/~jlohman
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