The Real Tea Party Knows Nothing
The Trickle Down Economic Theory is a RIGHT WING LIE. That doesn’t work, it has never worked, and it will never work. Because it's not principle based, it's corruption based it makes the RICHER, RICHER, and it produces massive poverty. President Ronald Reagan became the poster boy for the PREDATORY GLOBAL CORPORATIONS who seek cheat labor and obscene profits.
Showing posts with label Labor Unions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Labor Unions. Show all posts
Monday, April 11, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Paul Ryan’s Plan, the Coming Shutdown, and What’s Really at Stake
I was there in 1995 when the government closed because of a budget stalemate. I had to tell most of the Labor Department’s 15,600 employees to go home and not return the next day. I also had to tell them I didn’t know when they’d next get a paycheck.
There were two shutdowns, actually, rolling across the government in close succession, like thunder storms.
It’s not the way to do the public’s business.
Newt Gingrich got blamed largely because his ego was (and is) so big he couldn’t stop blabbing that Clinton should be blamed. (Gingrich’s complaint of a bad seat on Air Force One didn’t help.)
But the larger loss was to the dignity and credibility of the United States government. When average Americans saw the Speaker of the House and the President of the United States behaving like nursery school children unable to get along, it only added to the prevailing cynicism.
The GOP wants to shutdown the government a message to John Boehner we'll shutdown the GOP
There were two shutdowns, actually, rolling across the government in close succession, like thunder storms.
It’s not the way to do the public’s business.
Newt Gingrich got blamed largely because his ego was (and is) so big he couldn’t stop blabbing that Clinton should be blamed. (Gingrich’s complaint of a bad seat on Air Force One didn’t help.)
But the larger loss was to the dignity and credibility of the United States government. When average Americans saw the Speaker of the House and the President of the United States behaving like nursery school children unable to get along, it only added to the prevailing cynicism.
The GOP wants to shutdown the government a message to John Boehner we'll shutdown the GOP
Monday, March 28, 2011
A look at the world's new corporate tax havens Lesley Stahl explains how U.S. corporations are cutting their tax bills by moving business overseas
(CBS News) Our government is in knots over ways to lower the federal budget deficit. Well, what if we told you we found a pot of money - over $60 billion a year - that could be used to help out?
That bundle is tax money not coming in to the IRS from American corporations. One major way they avoid paying the tax man is by parking their profits overseas. They'll tell you they're forced to do that because the corporate 35 percent tax rate is high in relation to other countries, and indeed it seems the tax code actually encourages companies to move their businesses out of the country.
Tax havens: Do companies pay their fair share?
"60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl talks tax havens and the new ways American companies are stashing their profits abroad.
Companies searching out tax havens is nothing new: in the 80s and 90s there was an exodus to Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, where there are no taxes at all.
When President Obama threatened to clamp down on tax dodging, many companies decided to leave the Caribbean. But instead of coming back home, they went to safer havens like Switzerland.
Several of these companies came to a small, quaint medieval town in Switzerland call Zug.
Hans Marti, who heads Zug's economic development office, showed off the nearby snow-covered mountains. But Zug's main selling point isn't a view of the Alps: he told Stahl the taxes are somewhere between 15 and 16 percent.
"And in the United States it's 35 percent," Stahl pointed out.
"I know. It's half price," Marti said.
Marti told Stahl that Zug most probably has the lowest tax rates in Switzerland.
"So you're kind of a tax haven within a tax haven?" she remarked.
"Maybe, yes," he acknowledged.
The population of the town of Zug is 26,000; the number of companies in the area is 30,000 and growing at an average rate of 800 a year. But many are no more than mailboxes.
Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett questions whether the recent moves of several companies are legit. "A good example is one of my Texas companies that's been in the news lately, Transocean," Rep. Doggett told Stahl.
Transocean owned the drilling rig involved in the giant BP oil spill. They moved to Zug two years ago.
Extra: Benefits of bringing back cash
Extra: How to shift profits
"I'm not sure they even moved that much. They have about 1,300 employees still in the Houston area. They have 12 or 13 in Switzerland," Doggett told Stahl.
"And yet they claim that they're headquartered over there," Stahl remarked.
"They claim they're Swiss. And they claim they're Swiss for tax purposes. And by doing that, by renouncing their American citizenship, they've saved about $2 billion in taxes," Doggett explained.
Stahl and "60 Minutes" decided to visit their operations in Zug.
A woman at the door told Stahl, "At the moment my boss is not here."
She said her boss wasn't there and we should call someone halfway around the world, in Houston.
"But this is the headquarters," Stahl remarked.
"I know," the woman said.
When asked if the CEO was there or is normally at the Zug office, the woman said "No."
That bundle is tax money not coming in to the IRS from American corporations. One major way they avoid paying the tax man is by parking their profits overseas. They'll tell you they're forced to do that because the corporate 35 percent tax rate is high in relation to other countries, and indeed it seems the tax code actually encourages companies to move their businesses out of the country.
Tax havens: Do companies pay their fair share?
"60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl talks tax havens and the new ways American companies are stashing their profits abroad.
Companies searching out tax havens is nothing new: in the 80s and 90s there was an exodus to Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, where there are no taxes at all.
When President Obama threatened to clamp down on tax dodging, many companies decided to leave the Caribbean. But instead of coming back home, they went to safer havens like Switzerland.
Several of these companies came to a small, quaint medieval town in Switzerland call Zug.
Hans Marti, who heads Zug's economic development office, showed off the nearby snow-covered mountains. But Zug's main selling point isn't a view of the Alps: he told Stahl the taxes are somewhere between 15 and 16 percent.
"And in the United States it's 35 percent," Stahl pointed out.
"I know. It's half price," Marti said.
Marti told Stahl that Zug most probably has the lowest tax rates in Switzerland.
"So you're kind of a tax haven within a tax haven?" she remarked.
"Maybe, yes," he acknowledged.
The population of the town of Zug is 26,000; the number of companies in the area is 30,000 and growing at an average rate of 800 a year. But many are no more than mailboxes.
Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett questions whether the recent moves of several companies are legit. "A good example is one of my Texas companies that's been in the news lately, Transocean," Rep. Doggett told Stahl.
Transocean owned the drilling rig involved in the giant BP oil spill. They moved to Zug two years ago.
Extra: Benefits of bringing back cash
Extra: How to shift profits
"I'm not sure they even moved that much. They have about 1,300 employees still in the Houston area. They have 12 or 13 in Switzerland," Doggett told Stahl.
"And yet they claim that they're headquartered over there," Stahl remarked.
"They claim they're Swiss. And they claim they're Swiss for tax purposes. And by doing that, by renouncing their American citizenship, they've saved about $2 billion in taxes," Doggett explained.
Stahl and "60 Minutes" decided to visit their operations in Zug.
A woman at the door told Stahl, "At the moment my boss is not here."
She said her boss wasn't there and we should call someone halfway around the world, in Houston.
"But this is the headquarters," Stahl remarked.
"I know," the woman said.
When asked if the CEO was there or is normally at the Zug office, the woman said "No."
Corporate owned government, and the corporate electric media.
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