This is Planet Money from NPR.

In the game of Congressional dysfunction bingo, I would propose that just maybe the free

space in the middle should be the three words that seem to come up over and over and cause

problems for Republicans and Democrats.

It is the carried interest loophole.

The carried interest loophole.

It's a tax break.

We're going to keep saying loophole because that's how it's become known.

But it is a way that wealthy people, often people who manage things like hedge funds, venture

capital firms, private equity companies, a way that those people are able to pay lower

taxes.

Specifically, it lets them say, no, no, no, my money coming in here isn't income, which

has a high tax rate.

It's this other thing called carried interest that has a much lower tax rate.

When the inflation reduction act, nay, the climate bill, nay, also build back better,

was going to sort of close this loophole or start to think about closing it.

But then Arizona Senator Kirsten Sinema made her fellow Democrats take it out.

But all of this got us thinking that attacks loophole.

It does feel like this thing that's born of a conspiracy hatched over expensive stakes

with butter on them.

I mean, maybe it's not not that, but in the case of carried interest, it is so much more

than that.

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