[Occupymendocino] sign Bernie Sanders petition

[agnes at mcn.org]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [Occupymendocino] Are You With America or the Cayman Islands?
From:    "Mark Safron" <marksafron at att.net>
Date:    Sun, February 10, 2013 1:50 pm
To:      occupymendocino at lists.mcn.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark et al,
go to www.sanders.senate.gov to sign his petition, please and send it on.
Agnes

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/15951-are-you-with-america-or-the-cayman-islands-

Are You With America or the Cayman Islands?


By Bernie Sanders, Reader Supported News

09 February 13


hen the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street drove
this country into the deepest recession since the 1930s, the largest
financial institutions in the United States took every advantage of being
American. They just loved their country - and the willingness of the
American people to provide them with the largest bailout in world history.
In 2008, Congress approved a $700 billion gift to Wall Street. Another $16
trillion in virtually zero interest loans and other financial assistance
came from the Federal Reserve. America. What a great country.

But just two years later, as soon as these giant financial institutions
started making record-breaking profits again, they suddenly lost their
love for their native country. At a time when the nation was suffering
from a huge deficit, largely created by the recession that Wall Street
caused, the major financial institutions did everything they could to
avoid paying American taxes by establishing shell corporations in the
Cayman Islands and other tax havens.

In 2010, Bank of America set up more than 200 subsidiaries in the Cayman
Islands (which has a corporate tax rate of 0.0 percent) to avoid paying
U.S. taxes. It worked. Not only did Bank of America pay nothing in federal
income taxes, but it received a rebate from the IRS worth $1.9 billion
that year. They are not alone. In 2010, JP Morgan Chase operated 83
subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens to avoid paying some $4.9
billion in U.S. taxes. That same year Goldman Sachs operated 39
subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to avoid an estimated $3.3 billion in
U.S. taxes. Citigroup has paid no federal income taxes for the last four
years after receiving a total of $2.5 trillion in financial assistance
from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.

On and on it goes. Wall Street banks and large companies love America when
they need corporate welfare. But when it comes to paying American taxes or
American wages, they want nothing to do with this country. That has got to
change.

Offshore tax abuse is not just limited to Wall Street. Each and every year
corporations and the wealthy are avoiding more than $100 billion in U.S.
taxes by sheltering their income offshore.

Pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer have fought to make it
illegal for the American people to buy cheaper prescription drugs from
Canada and Europe. But, during tax season, Eli Lilly and Pfizer shift drug
patents and profits to the Netherlands and other offshore tax havens to
avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Apple wants all of the advantages of being an American company, but it
doesn't want to pay American taxes or American wages. It creates the iPad,
the iPhone, the iPod, and iTunes in the United States, but manufactures
most of its products in China so it doesn't have to pay American wages.
Then it shifts most of its profits to Ireland, Luxembourg, the British
Virgin Islands and other tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Without
such maneuvers, Apple's federal tax bill in the United States would have
been $2.4 billion higher in 2011.

Offshore tax schemes have become so absurd that one five-story office
building in the Cayman Islands is now the "home" to more than 18,000
corporations.

This tax avoidance does not just reduce the revenue that we need to pay
for education, healthcare, roads, and environmental protection, it is also
costing us millions of American jobs. Today, companies are using these
same tax schemes to lower their tax bills by shipping American jobs and
factories abroad. These tax breaks have contributed to the loss of more
than 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs and the closure of more than 56,000
factories since 2000. That also has got to change.

At a time when we have a $16.5 trillion national debt; at a time when
roughly one-quarter of the largest corporations in America are paying no
federal income taxes; and at a time when corporate profits are at an
all-time high; it is past time for Wall Street and corporate America to
pay their fair share.

That's what the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act (S.250) that I have
introduced with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is all about.

This legislation will stop profitable Wall Street banks and corporations
from sheltering profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens to
avoid paying U.S. taxes. It will also stop rewarding companies that ship
jobs and factories overseas with tax breaks. The Joint Committee on
Taxation has estimated in the past that the provisions in this bill will
raise more than $590 billion in revenue over the next decade.

As Congress debates deficit reduction, it is clear that we must raise
significant new revenue. At 15.8 percent of GDP, federal revenue is at
almost the lowest point in 60 years. Our Republican colleagues want to
balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the sick, the children,
the veterans and the most vulnerable by making massive cuts. At a time
when the middle class already is disappearing, that is not only a grossly
immoral position, it is bad economics.

We have a much better idea. Wall Street and the largest corporations in
the country must begin to pay their fair share of taxes. They must not be
able to continue hiding their profits offshore and shipping American jobs
overseas to avoid taxes.

Here's the simple truth. You can't be an American company only when you
want a massive bailout from the American people. You have also got to be
an American company, and pay your fair share of taxes, as we struggle with
the deficit and adequate funding for the needs of the American people. If
Wall Street and corporate America don't agree, the next time they need a
bailout let them go to the Cayman Islands, let them go to Bermuda, let
them go to the Bahamas and let them ask those countries for corporate
welfare.


Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work.
Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to
Reader Supported News.



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