Intel, Lockheed Tell Obama on Taxes, F-22: Not in This Economy

[Joanne98]

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Not in this economy.

That’s Intel Corp.’s argument against new taxes on overseas income. It’s Overstock.com Inc.’s objection to making unions easier to form. Ditto Lockheed Martin Corp.’s case against scrapping production of the F-22 jet.

U.S. companies are stepping up their fight against President Barack Obama’s proposals not aimed squarely at reviving the economy. They say Obama is trying to do too much, taking the focus off fixing credit markets and proposing ideas that may hurt rather than help.

“There are so many priorities that there is no priority,” said Bruce Josten, the chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobbying group. “There is nothing more important than fixing the housing and financial markets.” Obama “is saying we can do it all at once.”

Making an issue of an economy that shrank 6.2 percent last quarter, the steepest plunge in 27 years, is a potent strategy that may derail Obama’s agenda on issues from taxes to climate change, said Jeffrey Berry, a professor of political science who specializes in lobbying at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

“It’s a strategic argument, well-designed and well- timed,” Berry said. While companies typically say the timing is bad as they try to stall proposals, “it’s much more effective now in the depths of this recession.”

Tackle It All

Obama argued for tackling his entire agenda even amid a crisis in a speech to business executives in Washington on March 12.

“Problems in the financial markets, as acute and urgent as they are, are only a part of what threatens our economy,” Obama said. “We must not use the need to confront them as an excuse to keep ignoring the long-term threats to our prosperity.”

Semiconductor makers including Santa Clara, California- based Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, sent executives to Washington last week to press Democratic lawmakers and the administration to drop plans to end the deferral of U.S. taxes on overseas earnings. The companies call it a tax hike.

“If you want to decrease our competitiveness, then increasing our tax rate is exactly the right thing to do,” Intel Chairman Craig Barrett told reporters on March 11.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a_OqNC8WLyfU&refer=home

This is complete bull shit. Lockeed Martin is a welfare queen and I don't know who Intel is competing with. Maybe itself!

[WCGreen]

1. Perhaps it is because the Obama Administration see all of these

different priorities as part of one priority; restoring a sense of balance between the economic extremes in order to preserve our country for our children and their children's children.

[Demeter]

2. F Them! We Need the Revenues and They Have Money

Workers need unions. We do NOT need another over-priced war machine.

It's not doing too much, it's doing the things that have hung fire for 30 years or more, in order to prevent the pitchforks and torches and guillotines.

All these "extras" are parts of the economy, too. They are vital to revitalization.