The legendary investor Cliff Asness quipped on Twitter last week that when he dies he wants to “come back as a private equity lobbyist.” He was marveling at the PE industry’s ability to defeat the attempt by Democrats to limit the tax advantages of carried interest.

The latest Houdini act came last week when Sen. Kyrsten Sinema succeeded in bouncing the carried-interest provision from the Schumer-Manchin tax and drug price-control bill. Sen. Joe Manchin had insisted the provision was central to his support for the bill, though it would raise only $14 billion over 10 years.