AT LEAST $15 BILLION TO $25 BILLION SAVINGS
“[President Barak] Obama has
continued to invoke carried-interest reform as a way, to raise
revenue. [David] Rubenstein, who no longer has to contend with any real attempts to close the
loophole, has little to gain by insisting that it be retained. Instead, he characterizes reform efforts
as a distraction. He told [PBS journalist] Charlie Rose in 2012, ‘Our bigger problem isn't carried
interest. Our bigger problem is the one-trillion-dollar annual deficit and the sixteen trillion dollars of
debt we have.’ At the Credit Suisse forum in 2013, Rubenstein said of the potential savings from
revenue. [David] Rubenstein, who no longer has to contend with any real attempts to close the
loophole, has little to gain by insisting that it be retained. Instead, he characterizes reform efforts
as a distraction. He told [PBS journalist] Charlie Rose in 2012, ‘Our bigger problem isn't carried
interest. Our bigger problem is the one-trillion-dollar annual deficit and the sixteen trillion dollars of
debt we have.’ At the Credit Suisse forum in 2013, Rubenstein said of the potential savings from
closing the loophole, "It's a very modest amount
of money.’
“Victor Fleischer [the
loophole’s opponent] disagrees. He believes that
the revenue gained by loophole closure
would be many times as much as official
projections, which have ranged from fifteen billion
dollars over ten years to twenty-five
billion dollars.”
Alec MacGillis, “The Billionaires’ Loophole,” New Yorker,
March 14, 2016, pp: 64-73.
