Tuesday, July 15, 2025

News Alert | Lobbyist Who Helped Ultra-Rich Dodge Taxes Now Heads Trump Tax Office

‘Wallowing in Corruption': Lobbyist Who Helped Ultra-Rich Dodge Taxes Now Heads Trump Tax Office

A corporate lobbyist who for decades has helped major companies and rich Americans dodge taxes is now serving as the U.S. Treasury Department's top tax policy official, a position in which he will write rules implementing the newly passed Republican budget law.

"By putting a professional tax-dodging consultant in charge of their tax law, Republicans are continuing to make their intentions crystal clear—this law is a gift to billionaires and huge corporations like those Ken Kies has spent his career looking out for," said Leor Tal, campaign director for the progressive advocacy group Unrig Our Economy.

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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

News Alert | Lobbyist Who Helped Ultra-Rich Dodge Taxes Now Heads Trump Tax Office

‘Wallowing in Corruption': Lobbyist Who Helped Ultra-Rich Dodge Taxes Now Heads Trump Tax Office

Latest News

"By putting a professional tax dodging consultant in charge of their tax law, Republicans are continuing to make their intentions crystal clear—this law is a gift to billionaires and huge corporations."

"Why don't you pry carrot cake out of my cold, dead hands and give us back Medicaid coverage for millions instead," replied Democratic Sen. Mark Warner.

"Stop entertaining this man. Stop giving him money. It's really that simple," said one critic of Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth.

"What we saw was New Yorkers' hunger for a new kind of politics," said Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani of the primary race. "I understand that it is difficult for the former governor to come to terms with that."

"That decision is indefensible," the justice wrote. "It hands the executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out."

"Children's bodies are wasting away," the agency said. "This is not just a nutrition crisis. It's a child survival emergency."

"This budget proposal shows yet again the extremes to which anti-wildlife members of Congress will go to sacrifice endangered species," said one conservationist.

"The agency's removal of comprehensive customer service data calls into question whether this administration seeks to hide from the public the negative customer service impacts of its staffing cuts," said reads a letter led by Rep. Judy Chu.

In a closed-door session last week, senators advanced legislation that would authorize $925 billion in military spending for the coming fiscal year.

"This is not about security," said the head of Gaza's fishers' union. "It's economic, social, and psychological warfare, a weapon of slow, deliberate suffocation."

"No one wants to defend Trump's bullshit policies before the courts," said one critic of the president.

The family of Sayfollah Musallet called his killing by Israeli settlers "an unimaginable nightmare and an injustice that no family should ever have to face."

Gaza's Government Media Office said Israeli forces have killed more than 700 people at water distribution sites since October 2023.

"He just fired the last remaining State Department employees who work on climate change, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest threats to our national security," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The Trump administration is facing suspicion from all sides of burying information about the convicted sex criminal, who has a well-documented history with Trump. "This is about transparency and restoring trust, not partisan politics," said Khanna.

"I saw 32 people per cage—about 6 cages in one tent. People were yelling, 'Help me, help me'," said Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost.

"They are intentionally breaking government—even the parts that help us when we are deep in crisis," said Sen. Chris Murphy.

"No matter the color of their skin, what language they speak, or where they work, everyone is guaranteed constitutional rights to protect them from unlawful stops," said an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California.

"If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration," said one U.S. group.

"ICE is out of control," said one Democratic congresswoman. "This is not law enforcement. It is state violence."

"The only reason" to take the rules off the books now, said one critic, "is to score points with broadband monopolies and their lobbyists, who've fought against essential and popular safeguards for the past two decades straight."

"This decision will ensure nothing but a continued lack of justice and accountability for everyone involved in the 9/11 military trial at Guantánamo," said one critic.

"I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances," U.S. President Donald Trump insisted.

"This is far from the first time he and other members of Congress have engaged in such dangerous anti-Muslim rhetoric," said the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

As ICE has sent masked agents to round up mostly innocent people, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania said they "are just doing their job."

"His words and actions show he is loyal to Donald Trump—not the Constitution," said one progressive advocate.

"Trump’s thugs will racially profile you, then go on national television to brag about getting away with it," commented Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.).

"They are worried that his campaign is an example of what can happen all over the country."

"He pressed ahead with the war in April and July 2024, even as top generals told him that there was no further military advantage to continuing," reports The New York Times.

"ICE was conducting a raid using disproportionate displays of force against local farmworkers and our agricultural community," said U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, who was denied entry to one farm where he was attempting to provide oversight.

Financial disclosures analyzed by Accountable.US reveal that the vice president is invested in several defense contractors that have reaped lavish contracts since Trump's return to office.

"President Trump and his Christian nationalist allies are once again exploiting religion to boost their own political power," said the head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"Donald Trump and Republicans just sacrificed hospitals and lifesaving care for millions so they could hand out massive tax breaks to billionaires."

Eighty-five percent of Americans now support "allowing immigrants, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time," according to Gallup.

"The governor's action today demonstrates the absolute disdain Republicans have for working Missourians."

"There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power," said Khalil. "And I won't stop here."

"The stated position here is that socialists cannot be part of the Democratic Party," said one commentator. "Does this hold for the socialist voters too?"

Republicans plan to utilize a rare process called "rescission" to skirt Congress' power of the purse and illegally allow Trump to withhold hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding to critical programs.

"True Brazlians... do not let yourselves be the dogs of an American president who shames the ideas of democracy," wrote the editors of a major Brazilian newspaper.

"Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as 'illegal,'" said one critic of the move.

"This is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza," said the head of Project HOPE.

"The Trump administration's deportation goals will cause a major blow to the U.S. labor market," according to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

"The U.S. government is laundering repression through a private blacklist," said one pro-Palestinian news outlet.

"We are fighting to ensure President Trump doesn't trample on the citizenship rights of one single child," said a member of the legal team behind the class action suit.

"It's a ticking time bomb," said the executive director of UNAIDS.

Congressional Democrats want investigations "at every level of government of what went wrong" and to "stop the dismantling of federal agencies."

"This is an attack on democracy," said the head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. "Trump and Republicans in Congress know that they cannot win fairly in 2026, so they are demanding that Abbott cheat."

"If you wait to fight until the polls tell you an issue is important, the battle can be over before you show up," said Sen. Whitehouse.

"Any unilateral tariff increases will be addressed in accordance with Brazil's Economic Reciprocity Law," said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

One critic said Secretary of State Marco Rubio's "crude effort" to sanction Francesca Albanese "only serves to establish that the U.S. is an international outlaw."

"The reason why this is happening, not so subtly alluded to by Trump, is because Brazil actually held its right-wing coup leader accountable," said one critic.

After six months, the policy of tolling drivers has reduced traffic and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the city's transit system. But the Trump administration is still trying to shut it down.

"Democratic leaders love to talk about unity—until a progressive wins," said one prominent backer.

"Every month that Donald Trump has been in power, we've seen a raft of anti-climate measures come out which are music to the fossil fuel industry's ears," said one investigator.

"Nobody wants weak crypto rules more than the president of the United States," said the senator.

"This bill isn't governance," said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. "This is a class war waged from Capitol Hill."

"It is very likely that these historically high tariffs will damage the economy," writes the Tax Policy Center.

The nominees "took an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,'" said retired Maj. Gen. Dennis Laich. "Through their actions, or inaction, they are violating that oath."

"There are some serious questions about the impact of President Trump's assault on NOAA, the National Weather Service, and FEMA, and whether it made these floods more deadly," said Sen. Chris Murphy.

"What we found was crystal clear—any further investment in LNG is not compatible with a livable climate."

A new website imagines headlines attacking New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani—and calls out The New York Times' fixation on the progressive.

In one instance, Grok declared that Adolf Hitler was the best "historical figure" to "deal with... vile anti-white hate."

"All of this is happening so that billionaires will receive new tax breaks, a cruel juxtaposition as millions of our nation's children will lose access to basic nutrition," said one anti-hunger advocate.

"We don't want an emperor, we are sovereign countries," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Republicans on the Federal Trade Commission have "ensured that hardworking people will keep getting stuck with subscriptions they don't want or can't afford," said one consumer advocate.

The progressive senator underscored that the Israeli leader has been indicted by the International Criminal Court "for overseeing the systematic killing and starvation of civilians in Gaza."

The high court's decision to "release the president's wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation," said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, "is not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless."

"These figures represent a continuing and massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to fund war and weapons manufacturing," said the project's director.

"Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be," said the National Education Association.

"We are concerned that Golden Dome will be much more effective at wasting taxpayer dollars than countering missile attacks," the lawmakers wrote.

"The Trump administration is once again putting its thumb on the scale to help old, dirty power sources at the expense of air quality, public health, and higher energy bills," said one opponent.

Northeastern Pennsylvania Congressman Rob Bresnahan is one of many Republicans in swing states who are taking heat after ripping away Medicaid coverage from their constituents.