Gotta love the status quo. Given the chance between doing what’s best for all Americans or what’s best for their donors, they will choose thier donors every time. Even “liberal” politicians. Even, sadly, our current Democratic President.
We all know Republicans support Big Banks, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Tech, and so on and so forth. What’s sad though, is how many establishment Democrats from President Obama to Hillary Clinton to quite a number of Democratic Senators and Representatives are on the same page as those nasty GOP bootlickers and grifters, when it comes to serving the greater good of multinational corporations (from The Nation):
[T]he big hitters back in Washington politics are working on an ugly surprise not just for the kids but for all of us—another monster tax break for US multinational corporations.
The bad news is that key leaders of the Democratic Party—including the president—are getting on board with Republicans, despite some talk about confronting income inequality. Influential Democrats intend to negotiate with Republican counterparts on the size and terms of post-facto tax “forgiveness” for America’s globalized companies. This is real money they’re talking about a giveaway of hundreds of billions. […]
… Thanks to a loophole in the tax code, the companies do not have to pay US taxes on profits they have earned in foreign countries until they bring the money home to American shores. Altogether, the globalized US companies have accumulated $2.1 trillion in untaxed profits, most of it parked in overseas tax havens.
The multinationals are waiting for Congress to forgive them their debts.
And it seems likely they will get it in the form of a bills proposed by President Obama and/or Republicans in the House that, at a minimum, would reduce the tax liability of these greedy multinationals from 35% to 14% on the profits they have parked in offshore tax havens. Senator Elisabeth Warren rightly calls this budding deal with tax cheats, “a giant wet kiss for the tax dodgers who have already parked $2.1 trillion overseas.” Big tech firms from Apple to Microsoft, and Big Banksters such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, are among the companies that would reap the biggest benefit from this shadowy tax giveaway which is backed by some of the most corrupt politicians from both sides of the aisle.
Indeed, many leading Republicans and Democrats dismiss Obama’s 14% tax gift as not generous enough. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and her good friend(?) Rand Paul (R-KY) have proposed an alternative that woukld cut the tax liability of these corporations to 6.5% of their profits. Quite a deal if you can get it. Somehow I don’t expect to see Republicans or Democrats proposing to cut the taxes of small businesses or ordinary Americans by such a large extent, do you?
Orrin Hatch, on the other hand thinks even that is too much. His proposal would eliminate any tax liability for these multinational tax dodgers. While that is unlikely to pass, we already know that future Senate Leader and my Senator, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has had friendly discussions with Rob Portman (R-OH) and House Speaker Paul Ryan regarding international tax reform.
In other words, expect the Democratic Establishment to cut a deal, either before the election or shortly afterwards during the lame duck session to get this done. Sure wish I was a massively large corporate person so I could avoid paying taxes on my income. Maybe if ordinary Americans all became shareholders in a single corporation, we could afford lobbyists to get us a cushy deal like Silicon Valley and Wall Street are going to receive, blessed by the establishment of both parties.
Does your vote really matter when whomever you vote for in November is likely to screw you over in favor of Big Business time after time? Ponder that question a while, and also this one: Do we live in a democracy anymore when our politicians are in thrall to the the people with the most money? I know the answers I would give to those questions.
I wonder what Hillary Clinton thinks about this giant wet kiss to Corporate America? Or Donald Trump? Maybe someone should ask them. I have a pretty good idea what Bernie Sanders likely thinks of it – not much. Maybe someone at the next debate or town hall or whatever should ask all of them.