Obama Helping Lobbyists Weaken Offshore Tax Crackdown Dems Passed in 2002 over GOP Opposition

[brentspeak]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/11-9

Published on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by Open Left

by David Sirota

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.

(snip)

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...

(snip)

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."

[uponit7771]

1. Could you please add the caveat to these reports for balance...tia

[brentspeak]

2. ?

[Better Believe It]

9. You want caviar to eat.? Well, I think that's just for the corporate tax evaders.

Oh .... you wrote cav eats?

Never mind.

[jefferson_dem]

3. Obama-Derangement Syndrome (ODS) afflicted David Sirota is "on the case".

[brentspeak]

4. Pro-corporate offshore tax haven fans, defending Obama on this, on the case

[jefferson_dem]

5. Pretend Democrats outraged over every single move by the President, on the case.

n/t

[brentspeak]

6. I don't think it's me who's the "pretend Democrat"

[Teaser]

13. yeah, you're not even pretending so good anymore

.

[KoKo]

7. Thanks for posting. It's disturbing because it sounds like backpeddling

by the administration on cracking down on corporations who are doing this. They already backed down on going after more of the tax avoidance accounts after there was so much backlash on their getting the Swiss banks to reveal some of the tax cheaters and we know that there are these "tax havens" in many other places.

Seems the Big Corporations and their Wall St. Buddies still run everything, despite best efforts.

[KoKo]

8. +!

[mkultra]

10. important info left out of both the post and the first story

Both actually lead back to only one article with the important details such as the following. brentspeak only spins anti-obama MSM

(snip)
The provision..... would weaken a ban ... by saying the ban will not apply if it is inconsistent with U.S. obligations under an international agreement.
(snip)

So it only applies, much like the WH said, when it conflicts with our treaties.


(snip)
The ban’s supporters include Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who have introduced a tax reform bill aimed at companies sheltering revenue from taxes in offshore accounts. Supporters also include Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), ...
(snip)

(snip)
Though Durbin helped draft the bill with the proposed change to the ban included in it, he took a closer look at the language after hearing from the ban’s supporters and the administration, the aide said.
(snip)

(snip)

The Obama administration proposed the language providing exceptions to the ban because of its concern that the prohibition will conflict with trade agreements.

“The administration recognizes the important tax policy underlying the inverted corporation provision and is working with Congress to find a way to implement the prohibition in a manner that is consistent with our international trade obligations,” said Tom Gavin, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget.
(snip)

(snip)

The dispute between lawmakers and the administration over the language mirrors a clash earlier this year over “Buy American” provisions in the $787 billion stimulus.
(snip)

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mikekohr]

12. UPS Was A Corporate Sponsor Of "The Contract On America," They Have An Overseas Shell Corporation

based in Bermuda, Overseas Partners Limited, (OPL) whose sole design is avoidance of United States income taxes. The IRS won the largest back taxes judgment in history against them in the late 1990's. The Bush administration dropped the case during the appeals process.

Not fond of paying their fair share of taxes they are not fond of Democrats either. I was repeatedly informed by upper management that Democrats were a pale shade of the Communist Party. Their lobbying organization, UPSPAC, one of K Street's biggest, gives overwhelmingly to Republicans. When I left UPS in 1992 I turned in testimony and documents that detailed their tactics of forcing supervisors and management into donating to UPSPAC. The Federal Elections Commission filed a charge against UPS, in which, after a four year legal battle UPS agreed to pay a fine and to never engage in this behavior again (never get caught again).

I turned over to the EEOC internal company documents that resulted in a sealed judgment against UPS for age discrimination.

I turned over to attorney David Mark of Seattle, Washington, documents that proved UPS was aware of tactics that resulted in employees being forced to work through their unpaid lunch hour. The documents proved that UPS was aware of these facts and were actually tracking the number of affected employees on a national level, in spite of years of legal testimony to the contrary. The case resulted in a multi million dollar judgment aginst the corporate entity.

UPS, may be an authoritarian dinosaur in the business world, but they are extremely astute in avoiding bad press. In fact press clipping are gathered at a national and world wide level and studied with an intent as to how to influence positive press coverage. Example: one of the biggest contributors to National Public Radio is the Annie E. Casey Fund, This fund is named after the daughter of UPS's founder Jim Casey.

mike kohr
[e-mail]

[amandabeech]

14. Good for you! n/t