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The debt ceiling crap is over with, finally. But, while that made up crisis has been going on, another issue has been creeping up on us and that would be the corporate proposed tax repatriation holiday backed most certainly by the GOP and lately by more and more Democrats. This “ only once “ tax break for corporations who stash their foreign earnings, and much domestic earnings, is gaining steam among our congresscritters.
Representative Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat, is the latest lawmaker to consider legislation allowing multinational companies to send offshore profits to the U.S. at a reduced tax rate.
Her proposal, which was confirmed yesterday by Berkley’s communications director, David Cherry, would allow companies to return profits to the U.S. at a 25 percent tax rate, 10 percentage points below the maximum statutory rate. Most companies publicly supporting a holiday, such as Duke Energy Corp., have spoken favorably of the 5.25 percent rate that is being offered by Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican.
This is the same “ tax holiday “ that the Bush clan gave corporations back in 2004, which allows most of the biggest corporations in America to bring that money into the United States for what would basically be tax free. Of course, they are still using the same line of shit that they used the first time around, that being that giving them this tax break would give the companies more cash to invest in jobs growth. It did not happen in 2004, and it damned sure will not happen this time around either. The money went to shareholders in the form of dividends, and to the way over-paid CEO’s, along with the purchased government officials in the House and Senate. Nothing has changed for this trip either.
One thing that people must understand about this tax repatriation business is that it’s a wholly bipartisan affair. It’s not solely the work of evil Republicans. This is a scheme that requires heavies in both parties to help ram the knotty, hard-to-sell legislation through. On the Democratic side, unsurprisingly, the main actor is going to be Chuck Schumer. John Kerry is also involved with this nastiness. Barbara Boxer led the 2004 effort and the failed 2009 campaign to get a holiday, and is rumored to be lurking somewhere in this business.
Note that Cisco, a California corporate heavyweight and one of the companies lobbying most ravenously for this tax holiday, has been a consistent lifelong contributor to Boxer. You’ll find Cicso is also a contributor to most of the other congressional allies in the repatriation holiday effort, as are companies like Motorola, Merck , Pfizer, Proctor and Gamble, Ford, and others.
This crap needs to be stopped dead in its tracks. Corporations who pay very little, if any, taxes do not need another free ride on the backs of the American citizens.
