May, 11 2009, 04:40pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Ma
"It's Time Everyone Pays Their Fair Share to Rebuild Our Economy"
"SEIU
members wake up and work hard to put food on the table and strengthen
their community while getting through a healthcare crisis, a housing
crisis, a higher education crisis and the list goes on and on. At the
same time, American businesses reap the benefits of millions spent on
Washington lobbying with tax codes that allow them to shirk their
responsibility to pay taxes and actually pay them to create jobs
overseas instead of here in America," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer
Anna Burger.
WASHINGTON
"SEIU
members wake up and work hard to put food on the table and strengthen
their community while getting through a healthcare crisis, a housing
crisis, a higher education crisis and the list goes on and on. At the
same time, American businesses reap the benefits of millions spent on
Washington lobbying with tax codes that allow them to shirk their
responsibility to pay taxes and actually pay them to create jobs
overseas instead of here in America," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer
Anna Burger.
"We
are tired of businesses like Bank of America, AIG and Citigroup hiding
billions in profits while collecting billions in bailouts. When a
single building in the Cayman Islands is home to more than 18,000
offshore corporations, something has to stop. These are not our values;
this is not the America we believe in. It's time everyone pays their
fair share to rebuild our economy."
Today,
the U.S. Treasury Department released the 'Green Book' providing
details on President Obama's budget proposals. The changes, outlined
last week by the President, will close tax loopholes, change deferral
rules and crack down on global financial institutions that may be
hiding taxable U.S. income. These
1) Replacing Tax Advantages for Creating Jobs Overseas With Incentives to Create Them at Home
- The
Obama Administration would remove tax advantages for investing overseas
and would use the revenue to make permanent a tax credit for investment
in research and innovation within the United States.
2) Closing Foreign Tax Credit Loopholes
- The
Administration would close loopholes that allow U.S. businesses that
pay foreign taxes on overseas profits to claim a credit against their
U.S. taxes for the foreign taxes paid.
3) Getting Tough on Overseas Tax Havens and Cracking Down on the Abuse of Tax Havens
- President
Obama aims to crack down on a range of tax-avoidance techniques by
requiring U.S. businesses that establish certain corporations overseas
to report them as corporations on their U.S. tax returns. U.S. firms
that invest overseas would no longer be able to make their subsidiaries
or the income they shift to them disappear for tax purposes. This would level the playing field between firms that invest overseas and those that invest at home.
With 2 million members in Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico, SEIU is the fastest-growing union in the Americas. Focused on uniting workers in healthcare, public services and property services, SEIU members are winning better wages, healthcare and more secure jobs for our communities, while uniting their strength with their counterparts around the world to help ensure that workers--not just corporations and CEOs--benefit from today's global economy.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
But the president's sweeping use of his clemency power as his term nears its conclusion did not appear to extend to any of the 40 men currently on death row—some of whom have been there for decades.
According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
In a statement on Thursday, Biden said that he has "the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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The push to pass the NDAA comes as this congressional session winds down and after the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced last month that it had failed yet another audit—which several lawmakers highlighted after the Wednesday vote.
Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs and co-founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said in a joint statement, "Time and time again, Congress seems to be able to find the funds necessary to line the pockets of defense contractors while neglecting the problems everyday Americans face here at home."
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Several of the 124 House Democrats who voted against the NDAA cited those "culture war" policies, in addition to concerns about how the Pentagon spends massive amounts of money that could go toward improving lives across the country.
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