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Obama Helping Lobbyists Weaken Offshore Tax Crackdown Dems Passed in 2002 over GOP Opposition
One of the few - and I sincerely stress the word "few" - concrete legislative successes progressives notched in the Republican Congress under President George W. Bush came on the evening of July 26th, 2002, when they humiliated the House into passing a bill sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) banning federal contracts from going to companies that engage in tax "inversions." These are the schemes whereby a corporation that is based in the United States buy a P.O. box in Bermuda and use it to legally avoid paying American taxes.
The bill, reported Congressional Quarterly at the time, "was expected to fail [but] when the 15-minute voting clock ran out, DeLauro's amendment was five votes ahead." Ultimately, industry-owned Republican legislators who had tried to vote down the measure realized they weren't going to be able to stop it, and "after a nod from Republican leadership, more than 100 Republicans recast their votes to give DeLauro an avalanche victory." Having witnessed this firsthand on the floor of the House, I can tell you it was indeed a sight to see.
And yet in the now-Democratic Congress seven years later, with deficits exploding and the government clearly needing to strengthen any and all incentives for corporations to pay their taxes, I was more than disheartened to read this story in the Hill newspaper this week:
Multinational corporations are fighting to preserve language in a spending bill that would weaken a ban on federal contracts.The provision, inserted in the Senate version of the bill at the request of the Obama administration, would weaken a ban on federal contracts for inverted companies...
Before the ban began in 2002, four of the 100 largest federal contractors were inverted, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
In 2001, those four companies received $2.7 billion in federal contracts, but they have unable to win the contracts since the ban was put into place.
The Obama administration is justifying its push on the grounds that the ban may - at some point in the undetermined future - conflict with our trade agreements. It's a charge North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan (D) rightly calls "absurd."
What this is all about is corporate lobbying against provisions that both use taxpayer money to reward domestic companies that pay their fair share of taxes and disincentivize companies from trying to rip off the public through offshore "inversions." And it's one of the first examples we've seen of the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress potentially doing something even worse than the Bush administration and the Republican Congress.
Here we have a commonsense progressive tax measure that Democrats managed to pass and then expand under Bush and the GOP, and here we are less than a year into an era of full Democratic control of Washington watching Democrats aiming to weaken that tax measure. When you look at this move and remember that candidate Barack Obama himself promised to strengthen - not weaken - laws cracking down on offshore tax rip-off schemes, you wonder why we even waged that tough progressive fight back in 2002.
You wonder, in short, whether you are getting sold down the river.
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26 Comments so far
Show All"You wonder, in short, whether you are getting sold down the river." -- David Sirota
There is no doubt in my mind -- yes, we are being sold down the river on more than just this issue, not only by Obama, but by most of our elected officials as well.
Congressional Democrats who vote in the interest of the majority of their constituents are becoming rarer every day as it becomes more difficult for them to buck the K Street (corporate bribes)culture that Obama Inc. pursues with ever greater vigor.
"You wonder, in short, whether you are getting sold down the river." -- David Sirota
I stopped wondering some time ago.
We've already been wholesaled ... the retailing is ongoing ...
George Bush's 3rd Term ...
... more war, more bankster bailouts, more domestic spying, failure to prosecute war crimes, wall street crimes, health care reform sabotage and now this ...
More Corporate largess from Obama ...
"November 11, 2009 at 09:10 AM
The deal struck between the pharmaceutical lobby, the White House and Senate Democrats has drastically improved Big Pharma's expected profits, a private industry report finds.
IMS Health, a company that supplies the pharmaceutical companies with sales data, predicts that new health reform legislation -- combined with a projected upswing in the economy -- will result in a net gain of more than $137 billion in total market sales over the next four years."
Nationalize necessities, privatize luxuries.
What is missing from the David Sirota piece is a section naming names. Who is doing what exactly at who's behest? Without that, all this writer can do is speculate. My money is on the Wall Street refugees in the Obama administration.
Yes, Snobama and the seven insiders...much scarier than snow white and the seven dwarfs
tomhairless
IMPEACH OBAMA!
Outlaw corporations!
Obama = Lost Cause
Democratic Party = LOST CAUSES & FAILURES
U.S. Political System = Beyond Broken
U.S. Political System, literally in its last breathes of life!
Obama's betrayals of principle have now become quite surreal, really difficult for the mind to grasp. Yet we must:
1. Presidente Obama has acquiesced to Honduran golpistas, finally winnning the approval and admiration of Banana Republicans.
2. The Health Insurance Profit Protection Act, with unconstitutional individual mandates, is nearly locked in, with drugs and medical devices still protected from “normal” rigged-trade rules, by prior agreement with the president.
3. Not a single bankster is in prison or even indicted; capture is complete---too big to fail is now too big to regulate. Stocks soar along with unemployment (a win-win for the MFIC (Military-Financial-Industial-Complex)
4. Guantanamo is still indefinitely retained; prisoner abuse photos are reclassified.
5. Extraordinary ‘rendering’ continues as before
6. Dark-deal secrecy and illegal surveillance go on; FISA untouched.
7. Gays are still shafted
8. Unions are still screwed: Employee Free Choice Act is gutted with Obama’s passive nod.
9. Lobbying accelerates at industrial pace and campaign bribery with it.
10. Cuba is still under blockade
11. Bluster and threats continue toward Iran, still no diplomatic relations.
12. The occupation of Iraq continues; withdrawal is indefinitely withdrawn.
13. Israel continues its brutal occupation and settlement construction in Palestine.
Did I miss anything? We need to give Obama a little more time on Afghanistan. He has not yet fully complied with escalation demands. According to McClatchy and Salon, he is about to announce sending ONLY 34,000 more troops, falling 15% short of full obedience to the military.
It seems the plutocrats and militarists have won---for the time being, at least until 2012.
Yes, but don't you understand? HE HAS CHARISMA !
And don't forget his hope and audacity.
True. That's what really counts after all; let's just think happy thoughts and feel good about ourselves. Seems we have Ronald Reagan redux in office, where theater twists perception and perception trumps reality. Only this time it is mourning in America, and reality is finally catching up.
Yes, you missed a few things, because GWB's third term also includes outrage fatigue. So let's start with his election, accomplished by annihilating campaign finance reform. Don't leave out the big slap to women, putting their long fight for the right to decide their own care back in the hands of mullahs, along with the related expansion of faith-based tax dollars to award campaign support, which is what Obama does, how he works. He's the Daley machine in Washington. There are many more, but maybe it would be easier to name the liberal issues he has advanced.
In short, the Democratic Party does not exist. The Obama Party has replaced it. Don't be surprised if Republicans re-elect him in 2012, because one of the greatest frauds is GOP hyperventilation over Obama being liberal when he is a corporatist.
"...one of the greatest frauds is GOP hyperventilation over Obama being liberal when he is a corporatist."
Oh, but they are putting on quite a distracting show aren't they, and what an absurd parody it is. It is one giant shell game, fabricating the illusion of democracy.
"you wonder why we even waged that tough progressive fight back in 2002."
You wonder why progressives continue to 'fight' at all. What's the score again? Us: .1 Them: 27 trillion...?
"Off-shore tax shelter" shouldn't be f**king legal in the first place - but, as usual, instead of screaming about that, we're upset because one, tiny rotting cork might be removed...
What would America look like if all Americans paid no taxes because it was 'legal' to hide the money... in The Bahamas? Switzerland? A shoebox? That's why 'our' government takes its cut before we get paid - cause 'they' know they'd never see dime one in taxes otherwise...
Instead, down here on the decaying streets, ya miss a few bucks to the IRS and they're up your ass in a heartbeat for the rest of your natural life - and your kids', too, if you dare to leave em anything...
Will someone please poll the uber-Greedy and find out why they hate America and fellow Americans so much? Maybe we can change so that they'll stop screwing us over every chance they get...?
Uncle Tom strikes again, against us all.
Actually, most of us here saw something or other like this coming. I looked back at that 2002 legislation and even Wall $treet at that time admitted that it was toothless for the most part. Given that our president was given far more money than even Mccain and Obama's recent moves is enough to make one wonder what Wall $treet had secretly planned with Obama. My suspicion after picking up on this article is this. Wall $treet has no intention of cleaning up its mess and they want their suckers on Main Street to keep their illusion of "prosperity" afloat. As we can see, these bailouts had nothing to do with rescuing the real economy but instead desperately trying to salvage that illusion. Desperate to keep that illusion alive, they're counting on Obama to do their bidding and take the fall for it. Then when the GOP comes in, they'll be floated up as their "heros". So what's next, killing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act? I wouldn't be surprised if that happened before Obama's first (and probably the last) term ended by 2012. I will continue to take nothing for granted and I recommend the same to everyone.
Come on people, cheer up! This is just nth-dimensional chess the President is playing, you'll see. Now, get out there and make your voices heard. Our elected officials are just dying to do the right thing, if only we would make them do it.
In that way they are like some kind of evil genie with a sympathetic streak; constitutionally bound to do wrong, but secretly hoping we'll make the right wish so that he can find redemption.
"I can't believe that!" said Alice.
"Can't you?" the queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes."
Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said. "One can't believe impossible things."
"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." - Lewis Carrol, Futurist
Time for the rest of US to likewise incorporate as America, Inc., "invert" in Bermuda and cut DEM AND the miserepublicans off at the (tax) bills! Sirota, Nader, anyone?
The headline to this piece is far too wordy. Only the first three words were necessary.
100,000 people would show up at Obama's speeches during the campaign. How many today? Very few, and I'm sure mostly protesters from the left and right.
Until we get money out of polit... aw fuck it, nobody cares.