Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia is really distinguishing himself as a singular sensation in skulduggery. After making headlines Thursday with a new self-dealing stock scheme, Perdue came roaring back on Friday by using his position as a sitting senator to advance a policy that could have actually benefitted Georgia's other unscrupulous GOP senator, Kelly Loeffler.
In this instance, Perdue became the sole senator to push Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to reconsider an obscure regulatory rule that resulted in the owners of professional sports teams losing out on a tax break afforded to many other businesses. “I hope you will reconsider,” Perdue wrote in the January 2019 letter.
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ProPublica writes:
Many such letters on regulatory matters are signed by multiple senators, sometimes dozens. But in this case Perdue alone wrote and signed the letter. Why Perdue got interested in an obscure tax regulation, which would impact at most only a small set of the richest Americans, is unclear. Perdue was not on the committee that crafted the legislation, making his in-the-weeds lobbying on the arcane regulation unusual, congressional experts said.
Mnuchin ignored Perdue's advice, but Perdue's motivation isn't exactly "unclear." As ProPublica also noted, the change would have resulted in a windfall for some of his largest donors who have contributed hundreds of thousands to his campaign coffers. In fact, that's exactly why any sitting senator lobbies for an obscure regulatory change—a small cadre of rich and powerful people stand to benefit handsomely from something that escaped everyone else's attention.
But in this case, it just so happens that Perdue's fellow Republican senator stood to benefit as well since Loeffler co-owns Atlanta's WNBA team, the Dream. Before being appointed to her current post in late 2019, Loeffler had donated generously to Perdue. They really are two peas in a pod.
Shockingly, Perdue's office declined to answer questions about his lonely effort to benefit a very narrow pool of people who also happen to be his benefactors. In fact, of late, Perdue essentially isn't taking questions of any kind, whether they come via press inquiries or debate appearances. As his last debate with Democratic rival Jon Ossoff proved, there's no good rationale for Perdue's actions other than rank corruption. Perdue has decided to simply forgo any subsequent debates going forward.
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