Lucrative opportunities may await Lott

Many provisions in the current tax law, including income tax rates, expire on Dec. 31, 2010. Lott has long served on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee and knows the thinking of its members as well as any person on Capitol Hill.

Ken Kies, managing director of the Federal Policy Group, a tax lobbying and strategy firm, said for the rewrite of the tax law “the real critical time is probably the end of 2009. The estate tax goes to zero on Jan. 1, 2009 and on Jan. 1, 2010 goes back up to 55 percent. Most people can’t believe that Congress is not going to address the estate tax. There’s going to be enormous pressure to deal with this in 2009.”

And who better to be advising a firm in 2009 than Lott?

Having served in Congress since 1973, Lott is “is one of the most astute observers of how the place works,” Kies said.

A dysfunctional Senate?
Lott has been saying for weeks that the Senate he once ran as majority leader has now become dysfunctional under Democratic leadership.

Two weeks ago, Lott complained to reporters that “It's becoming more and more apparent to me that this is just a broken Congress. In instance after instance after instance, we're not producing results where they're absolutely essential.”

He cited the failure of the Democratic-led Congress to enact a temporary remedy for the Alternative Minimum Tax which will hit many middle-income taxpayers with a big tax increase.

But perhaps, in a perverse way, the more dysfunctional the Congress is, and the more that outcomes teeter on a handful of votes, the more a company needs a wise lobbyist who can tell which way the votes will fall.

MORE FROM POLITICS

Politics Section Front

Obama, McCain prepare for final debate Newsweek: Don't buy the "comeback" script NYT poll: Attacks by McCain turn off voters Biden says Obama would create 2 million jobs   Pastor fights IRS with pro-McCain sermon RNC halting ads in Wisconsin, Maine   Judge orders state to preserve Palin's e-mail Early voting in Georgia is high First Read: Oops! Obama's spin spilled Fineman: McCain stock souring in New York? Politics Section Front   Add Politics headlines to your news reader: