Offering Team America-style rants against businesses, 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls on Tuesday emphasized their disgust for corruption. Unfortunately, their opposition to corruption targets private corporations and ignores corruption in government and unions.
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders led the charge here, attacking corporations for mitigating their tax bills by utilizing legal loopholes in the tax code.
OK, yes, most of us would probably argue that these loopholes should be closed to ensure that corporations pay taxes at the same rate as their competitors. But the fact that many corporations do not do so is not their moral failing but the failing of Congress to legislate beyond the temptation of special interest loopholes. Congress should redress that failing or blame itself for not doing so.
Moreover, why are Sanders, Warren, and company so disinterested in public corruption?
The question needs an answer for two reasons. First, because public sector corruption tends to be a much greater problem for taxpayers than private sector corruption. This is partly measured by the difference in productivity per investment dollar between the private and public sectors but also by the criminal charges issued just about every week against government and union leaders. Do Democrats not worry about the corruption afflicting unions across the nation?
Apparently not. Perhaps not coincidentally, those same interests donate and organize in favor of Democrats.
The broader issue here is one of political history. History reminds us that it is big government that is most likely to produce the conditions and culture for corruption. Best encapsulated by Sanders’s former favorite nation, the Soviet Union, this corruption dynamic is a historic reality for a simple reason: human nature. Put a lot of money in the hands of a few politicians, a few more bureaucrats, and then match them up to just a few more contractor bidders, and you’ve got the ingredients for malfeasance. Because, unlike in the private sector, public investments are rarely matched up to a tied expectation for a return on investment. If business leaders and account managers fail to use their investments wisely, they’re fired. If government bureaucrats fail, politicians simply tend to appropriate more funds to fill the gaps.
So, yes, we can all agree that corruption is bad. Let’s see Democrats abandon the idea that all corrupt officials are equal but some corrupt officials are more equal than others. That’s just not reality.
