Why the Panama Papers Could Catapult Bernie Sanders to the White House

[Bread and Circus]

Why the Panama Papers Could Catapult Bernie Sanders to the White House

http://usuncut.com/politics/panama-papers-bernie-sanders-white-house/

The Panama Papers may be the defining story of the 2016 Democratic Primary. And Bernie Sanders is on the right side of history.

The 11.5 million documents, which came from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), expose how the upper end of the 1 percent utilizes shell companies and gray areas in tax law to stash untold billions of dollars in overseas tax-free accounts. The leak was so massive, it took an army of 400 journalists working for an entire year to sift through the documents. At least 140 world leaders from 50 different countries were implicated in the leaks.

Bernie Sanders saw this coming from a mile away. On October 12, 2011, Sen. Sanders took the Senate floor to denounce the Panama trade pact, shooting down the conventional arguments in favor of the deal.

...

As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was on the complete opposite side of the issue. In an official statement issued by the US Department of State on October 13, 2011 (one day after Sanders’ floor address), Clinton congratulated President Obama for passing the trade pact, citing the very same job creation arguments Sen. Sanders shot down a day earlier.

[amborin]

1. K&R

[daleanime]

2. K&R.....

[SoLeftIAmRight]

3. many of her friends are in those papers

she knew - she does not care

[jillan]

4. I hope Bernie's campaign is working on this.

[NWCorona]

5. The media kinda ran with this really fast

Now that people are digging through the inner workings and connecting the dots. It will be interesting how it's covered going forward.

You are right tho. This could be huge!

[Jitter65]

7. I believe the shell companies and tax havens were there long before the trade bills were approved.

And there are shell companies and tax havens in many other places around the globe...some even in Delaware.
Of course, the Bernie supporters will make their own links to this all being Hillary's fault. Maybe even insinuate Hillary has huge sums of money stashed away in Panama?

[NWCorona]

10. Yes those issues were there and this deal made things worse

Bernie spoke on this on the Senate floor at the time.

No we won't say this is Hillary's fault. She was definitely a player in making it happen and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they find some links to the foundation as well.

This is a matter of judgment and Bernie was once again on the right side on this issue.

This will definitely be used against Hillary.

[Fumesucker]

12. Eh, Bernie was accused of having secret money stashed in Israel months ago

You are very late to that type of conspiracy theory.

[Ghost Dog]

14. Delaware, Nevada, New Mexico...

Google it.

... One place Americans can hide assets, though? The United States. Experts point out that it's stable, it's safe, and the laws make it fairly easy to structure your holdings – legally – to keep taxes low.

“Not too surprised,” Zucman wrote in an email about the lack of Americans in the Panama Papers. “Part of the reason is that it’s unfortunately way too easy to create anonymous shell companies in a number of US States like Delaware and Nevada, so no need to go to Panama.” In fact, multiple international organizations rated the U.S. as one of the world’s biggest tax havens last year.

So even as Congress has passed laws like FATCA to force foreign banks to hand over more information about Americans, the U.S.’s own legal system offers them plenty of creative ways to stash their money. For instance, a limited liability company, or LLC, acts as a partnership, so any income is passed through to the partners, avoiding the corporate tax. For foreign-owned LLCs, this structure allows them to avoid U.S. taxes.

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/04/the-panama-papers-where-are-the-americans-000083

[Ino]

6. Once again...

Bernie Sanders understood what would happen, and spoke out against it... like a true leader.

Once again, Hillary was on the wrong side.

[DebbieCDC]

9. ^This^

[pablo_marmol]

8. From your lips to Dog's ears. NT

[Betty Karlson]

11. K&R for Bernie's foreign policy experience: being RIGHT

And please let's not nominate the politician who got every foreign policy question wrong.

[me b zola]

13. K&R

[rbrnmw]

15. Don't Stop Believin

[MaeScott]

16. Kicked.