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**APRIL 14, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

The Paradox of Corporate Power

****

Somehow, America's corporations have the political power to work with
Republicans to achieve low taxes, deregulation, and union bashing. But
when it comes to sticking up for voting rights, Republicans blow them
off? How can this be?

The answer is pretty simple. Big business plays serious hardball when it
comes to realizing their own goals. Their support for democratic rights
is just rhetorical.

What would make it serious? How about denying support to all politicians
who would restrict democratic rights, and financially supporting the
party that defends rights? That would be revolutionary.

Don't hold your breath. Business's own political goals come first.
At best, the marriage of capitalism and democracy is an uneasy one. We
need to keep the pressure on big corporations to walk the talk.

Inflation Spike? The Consumer Price Index rose 0.6 percent in March. Is
this an early result of too much stimulus? No, but wait for

**The Wall Street Journal**, Fox, and various Republican politicians to
offer Cassandra warnings on roaring inflation.

Mostly, the price hikes reflect one-time factors, such as gas prices
rising with post-pandemic travel resuming, supply constraints reflecting
global supply chain problems, and sectoral quirks such as hikes in
prices of Canadian lumber.

The basic climate of low inflation is unchanged. The largest driver of
inflation is wages, and wages continue to lag. So the Biden
administration needs to keep going full speed ahead, and damn the
naysayers.

Taxes: Belated Good News. The $3,000 refundable child tax credit is one
of the most far-reaching provisions of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue
Plan. But it is only for one year.

Yesterday, Biden pledged

to the Congressional Black Caucus that he supports a permanent extension
of the credit; and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig walked back previous
comments that his agency might not be able to meet the July target of
sending out monthly checks. Checks will go out

as planned.

Even better, Rettig testified that a trillion dollars
of taxes
owed goes uncollected

**every year**. One reason is that the IRS is grossly underfunded.
Biden's budget would increase its funding by more than 10 percent,
expressly targeted to audit wealthy tax evaders.

Rettig's testimony means that we could raise more than enough money to
finance all of Biden's public-investment initiatives just by
collecting money owed by rich tax cheats. There is no better
illustration of just how warped our economy has become and the need for
radical remedy.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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