By Chris Satullo

To note that Mitch McConnell has committed a jaw-dropping, put-his-picture-in-Webster’s-next-to-the word act of hypocrisy has become akin to saying the sun rose in the east this morning.

Still, it was hard just to shrug at how the senior senator from Kentucky responded a few days ago after Major League Baseball pulled its 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta to protest Georgia Republicans’ vote-suppressing, autocrat-coddling antics. Major Georgia-based corporations like Coca-Cola and Delta also expressed loud, public dismay at the state’s new election law.

In his best Yertle the Turtle deadpan, the Senate minority leader grumbled into the mics: “I found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate CEOs getting in the middle of politics. My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics. Don’t pick sides in these big fights.”

In other words: Nice little profit stream you have going there; would be terrible if something happened to it.

If I were to mention that McConnell’s words here did not exactly line up with the hosannas he sang at past Supreme Court decisions that allowed corporations to swamp our elections with self-interested spending – or that McConnell’s SuperPAC has by itself snarfed up $475 million in corporate contributions-– I’d be the gazillionth pundit to do that this week. That’s not even getting into the 18 late-night hosts who’ve delightedly cracked wise about it.

So, I won’t dwell on that. Let me instead try to talk about things to come.

Tell me Senator, based on your new McConnell’s Maxim, are we to understand that, once the Senate gets to considering the massive restructuring of corporate taxes President Biden has proposed to pay for his big infrastructure plan – and anxious corporate lobbyists flock to your office to oppose said plan – you’ll primly tell them to stop bothering you? You’ll instruct them to slink back to their K Street haunts and let Congress do its deliberations free from their machinations, is that it?

It is to laugh. If most members of the GOP caucus didn’t have corporate lobbyists whispering in their ears telling them how to shape the tax code, they would not have a clue. Remember how the text of Trump’s big tax bill of 2017 that circulated the day of the Senate’s big vote actually showed changes proposed by lobbyists scribbled in the margins?

Biden wants to find a big chunk of the $2 trillion he intends to spend on his definition of infrastructure by reworking the Byzantine clauses of the U.S. tax code that seek to prevent multinational corporations from “off-shoring” some of their American profits to nations with more favorable tax rates. The 2017 law was hyped as trying to do the same, but the Bidenites claim it didn’t do a great job of it.

Given how many corporate moguls were in Trump’s cabinet and how many lobbyist fingerprints were on the final result, is it any wonder? When you bring the foxes in as consultants on your hen house security plan, don’t be surprised when chickens start disappearing.

I majored in English, not accounting or macroeconomics, but my grasp of the implications of Biden’s corporate tax plan surely exceeds that of GOP Clown Caucus members such as Mo Brooks, Louie Gohmert and Paul Gosar. I’m also sure that smug new MAGA star Madison Cawthorn will never bother to read the bill, but will unleash his fabled “comms team” to craft some outrageous lines he can spout on Fox News to decry how Biden will “destroy the American economy.” (Congressional Republicans use that phrase to respond to liberal ideas as reflexively as Ralphie’s parents on The Christmas Story responded to his pleas for a Red Ryder B-B gun with You’ll shoot your eye out.)

This is big, complex stuff the Biden team is pitching on corporate taxation – including a related bid to persuade other nations to adjust the international taxing regime to curb corporate tax haven shopping. Such major proposals often have some fuzzy math tucked into them. They can be laden with unforeseen consequences. A robust, multisided, factual deliberation – exactly what did not happen with the 2017 bill – would be nice to see. Alas, it’s about as likely as the minor-league Toledo Mud Hens winning the World Series this year.

I’ll make this point again, because it really can’t be made enough: Bad things happen when you put people who don’t believe in governing in charge of government.

One corrosive thing they do is this: Signal to generations of young people that only dullards, incompetents and fusty finger-waggers go into government. All the smart, cool kids grow up to do the really useful, well-paid stuff – like helping Wall Street come up with new ways to crash the global economy or helping white-shoe law firms show big corporations how to avoid taxes, regulation and accountability.

Now, yes, some great people, imbued with an older ethic of service, still go into government to fight the good fight. But when Congress gets run by people like McConnell, the White House by people like Donald Trump, the Supreme Court by people like John Roberts, public servants seeking a fair tax and regulatory playing field feel the turf consistently getting tilted beneath their feet: Congress slashes IRS funding. Corporate execs who don’t believe in regulation get appointed to run regulatory agencies. Court rulings sap government’s power to make sufficient rules.

Quietly but firmly, Joe Biden is shaping his presidency as a bid to stem – and even reverse – these trends that date back at least to Ronald Reagan.

Don’t know if he can pull it off.  But I’m appreciating the effort.

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Chris Satullo, a civic engagement consultant, is a former editorial page editor/columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a former vice president/news at WHYY public media in Philadelphia