Defending Tax Loopholes as a Civil Rights Issue?

Here is a WaPo oped that deserves a lot of credit:

IF YOU’RE lobbying to keep a tax break, rich white guys making astronomical sums by investing other people’s money aren’t the most sympathetic clients – especially when they’re paying taxes at a lower rate than firefighters and teachers. So the private-equity and hedge fund industry has come up with a cynical new approach, arguing that raising their taxes would hurt women- and minority-owned firms and dampen investment in needy urban areas.

A short but good discussion of the carried interest debate follows with this from Congressional Budget Office Director Peter R. Orszag:

Most economists would view at least part, and perhaps all, of the carried interest as performance-based compensation for management services . . . rather than a return on financial capital invested by that partner.

The end of this oped is high quality snark:

it’s touching to know that the folks at the Blackstone and Carlyle groups are so concerned with ensuring investment in the inner city.