Can we get some New York senators who aren’t totally beholden to the Wall Street bankers? I mean, geez…A piece today in The New York Times explores why Chuck Schumer is running interference for the private equity fund and hedge fund managers who are trying to block a bill that would hike their taxes.

June was a busy month for Senator Charles E. Schumer. On the phone, at large parties and small gatherings around the nation, he raised more than $1 million from the booming private equity and hedge fund industries for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, of which he is chairman.

But there is another way Mr. Schumer has been busy with hedge fund and private equity managers, an important part of his constituency in New York. He has been reassuring them that he will resist an effort led by members of his own party to single out the industry with a plan that would more than double the taxes on the enormous profits reaped by its executives.

Understand, we are talking about legislation that would raise the taxes these guys pay from 15 percent to 35 percent–closing a loophole in the tax law that allows people who are raking in unbelievable profits to pay virtually nothing on their revenues. And, yet, Schumer is fighting to block that legislation. In his defense, he offers a different approach:

Mr. Schumer says he is working on an alternative tax plan, the details of which he would not disclose. But in the interview he spoke approvingly of raising the tax rate on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans — those earning more than $400,000 a year — to 40 percent from 35 percent. He added that Congress could also once again set the capital gains tax rate at 20 percent, raising it from the current 15 percent.

So, that’s fine, Chuck–the rich are paying taxes that are far too low by historic standards. But, that doesn’t excuse opposing raising taxes on people–the hedge fund managers and equity fund folks–who are paying at rates as if they were poor.