Well, Republican Populism Didn’t Last Long. We’re Back to Making the Rich Richer.

Turns out that the “populist strain” in Republican politics was less severe than originally thought and has almost completely healed. They’ll be running with the bulls again in no time. Remember the carried-interest loophole, the Oligarch’s Friend, the provision of the tax code that is so egregiously dedicated to keeping rich people rich that even some Republicans talked about doing away with it, including, most recently, the president? Well, it’s still there, and the Republicans are planning on giving it some company.

From Greg Sargent, who went spelunking through the Big Beautiful Bill for The New Republic:

Trump recently got lots of media attention for supposedly wanting House Speaker Mike Johnson to use the bill to close the “carried interest loophole.” That provision lets investment fund managers pay far lower tax rates on profits—a glaring example of the rigging of our tax code in favor of wealthy elites. Trump totally wants to raise taxes on the rich, credulous headlines screamed. But after Republicans protested Trump’s demand—and after private equity lobbyists got to work—Trump backed off rather meekly. Result: The GOP bill does not end this loophole. As Punchbowl News puts it, this constitutes a “big victory to hedge fund managers, private equity executives, and their lobbyists.”

But it’s actually worse than this, tax experts tell me. That’s because the GOP bill also creates a whole new tax benefit for precisely these types of wealthy investors, the experts say. “Republicans could have closed the carried interest loophole,” Michael Linden, campaign director for the advocacy group Families Over Billionaires, told me. “Not only did they not do that, but the GOP bill opens up another tax break for private equity that didn’t previously exist. The private equity lobbyists win again.”

At issue is a provision of Trump’s 2017 tax law, which overwhelmingly benefited the rich and corporations. The provision is a deduction for “pass-through” entities, which pass income through businesses to owners, who then pay the taxes on it. Income that flows through these businesses disproportionally goes to the wealthy, so this provision benefits them.

The new House GOP bill—which extends many of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts—also expands that particular provision, these experts say. It raises the amount these businesses can deduct. And it extends the deduction to so-called “Business Development Companies.” These are vehicles that facilitate passive investments; the rationale for extending this deduction is that it might make capital more available. But according to analysts at the Tax Law Center, the investors this would benefit are mostly rich ones.

Like so much of the post-Reagan American economy, this is money for nothing. It produces wealth by producing more and more nothing. The rich are different from you and me. The government always seems to work for them.