David Wessel > Quotes

“From the start, EIG would marry a well-crafted political strategy with white papers, data, talking points, and graphics, the tools most often wielded by agile DC think tanks.”
― David Wessel, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age

“There are OZ projects that live up to the stated objectives of the EIG boys and their congressional allies, but it’s hard to make the case that they represent the bulk of the projects financed by OZ investors”
― David Wessel, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age

“students show up as poor in census data.”
― David Wessel, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age

“This is how Washington works: a billionaire-financed organization with a focused legislative agenda hires a former congressional staffer to advise on crafting a tax proposal that not only looks much less costly than it truly is, but also includes a feature that will make it easy for Congress to push off investors’ tax due date.”
― David Wessel, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age

“Novogradac is one of those behind-the-scenes players that leverages expertise to influence legislation and arcane IRS regulatory decisions.”
― David Wessel, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age

“the focus at the OZ Expo is not on the quality of the underlying investments, it’s on the lust for tax breaks.”
― David Wessel, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age

“Thanks to Tim Scott, Opportunity Zones had momentum in the Senate. Without any serious deliberation or careful analysis from administration economists or Treasury tax experts, Opportunity Zones were now on the White House priority list, too.”
― David Wessel, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age