Robbing Peter to Pay Paul?
Earlier this week the President proposed tightening tax-code provisions that currently allow corporations to defer paying taxes on profits they make overseas if those profits are invested back into the foreign subsidiaries. In other words, he wants to undo rules that are set up to keep hundreds of billions of dollars from coming back to the United States. That money could be helping restore our domestic economy and lower taxes on hard-working middle class citizens.
Yet, to hear the special interests howl, you’d think he was talking about something unpatriotic – the GOP has been quick to label it “bad for business,” while some critics going for soundbites suggest it’s “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Call it robbing one to pay the other if you choose, but then you have to admit that’s the term to describe any way the government raises money. Yet our founding fathers described, in the preamble to the Constitution, a federal government that provides services, such as, “provide for the common defense” and insuring domestic tranquility – duties which imply a need to have sufficient revenue.
If paying taxes so we have a strong military, an interstate highway system, the FAA, satellites, and a health care system that insures senior citizens can afford coverage, and so on somehow offends your sense of fair play, you’re in the wrong country.
Being a super-power isn’t free
By all means, though, those who feel the burden is too great, that our centuries-long exercise in democracy and capitalism in this republic isn’t producing the greatest nation to live in, should move somewhere with lower taxes. Think of all the money they could save while the patriots who stay in the U.S.A. are burdened with those terrible taxes.
So unless you want the sort of government that they’ve got in Somalia stop whining about trying to insure everybody pays their fair share. The President’’s vision includes closing the loopholes that have favored wealthy special interests over workers – including in particular provisions that provide the biggest multi-national corporations incentives to outsource investments that could – and should – translate into jobs for working Americans.
Sure, it’s easy to say “no new taxes” and paint with a broad brush for the 6:00 news. That plays well when people don’t connect it to out-sourcing. Most Americans are OK with paying their fair share to insure our future, just the way our founding fathers envisioned. This is our country, and we want what’s best for our communities. It’s time to stop letting big business shirk their responsibility and dodge taxes with loopholes only a lobbyist could love.
Helping the wealthy avoid paying their fair share by taking advantage of overseas tax havens is “robbing Peter to pay Paul?” That may sound catchy coming sugar-coated from a talking head; but I call it bullshit.
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