From the "I can't believe we have to even say this" file

From this breaking article today--this morning--on Yahoo! News:

5 Unfair Tax Breaks That Should Be Eliminated (link at bottom)

Here's the last one, number 5:

Tax break for offshoring U.S. jobs

Businesses also get their fair share of tax breaks and tax loopholes. The ability to save on corporate taxes by shipping operations overseas is one of the most vilified corporate tax breaks.

U.S. businesses get a tax deduction for the costs they incur in relocating their domestic operations to a foreign location. True, it's not a special tax break for moving, say, a factory and its 600 jobs from St. Louis to Singapore. If the company had moved from St. Louis to Indianapolis, the business would get the same tax deduction. And, says the Tax Foundation, jobs are at least three times more likely to be relocated from one state to another than overseas.

Still, when U.S. unemployment is high, a tax break that rewards the elimination of more U.S. jobs seems like a really bad idea.

I've said this before here, that any and all tax deductions that reward companies and people for offshoring jobs should, without doubt, be rescinded. The Democrats proposed it in Congress, a year or two ago, but it was killed by that other political party as "raising taxes."

We need jobs here, first of all, and second, there shouldn't be tax breaks for offshoring manufacturing or other jobs because, after all, we need the tax revenue here in the States.

It's difficult to believe we even have to say this, isn't it?

Link to original post: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-egregious-tax-loopholes-benefit-080033155.html

Hoping to end all "fossil fuel" tax subsidies

Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) has introduced a bill today to end all fossil fuel subsidies.

This bill would save taxpayers more than $113 billion over the next 10 years, for starters.

In addition, it would take these tax subsidies away from "Big Oil", one of the most profitable industries and some of the most profitable companies in the nation and the world.

Another benefit would be to not any longer support companies and an industry that

--has us in the Middle East, fighting centuries-old wars and

--has us polluting the air

--has us adding yet more CO2 into the atmosphere, possibly (likely?) contributing heavily and mightily to global warming/climate change.

--adds some water pollution, at least, if not a great deal, before, during and after oil drilling but also makes for the obscene oil spills with tankers or oil rig blowouts or whatever.

And all those are just the minimum negative attributes.

It is long overdue that we end these ridiculous tax subsidies for all the reasons listed above, at least. The country needs it. We need the tax revenue, too. Giving wealthy people and companies tax deductions is just wrong, if not crazy.

If you would, please add and show your support by signing the petition today: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/end-polluter-welfare/

To Republican legislators: It's jobs, people

Still.

Republican leaders: Where are the jobs?

Republican leaders in Washington have introduced 44 bills on abortion, 99 on religion, 71 on family relationships, 36 on marriage, 67 on firearms and/or gun control, 52 on taxation and a mind-boggling 445 on "government investigations" while they've introduced ZERO--none, not one--on jobs or creating jobs. While we're at it, couldn't and shouldn't somebody propose that a) we take away all tax credits to take manufacturing offshore and b) that corporations can no longer take profits "offshore." Simple, intelligent--even obvious--ideas that have yet to be proposed. I think both could and would strengthen America greatly.

Manufacturing in the United States

It seems we all agree there needs to be more manufacturing and so, manufacturing jobs here in the US. It seems to be one thing on which we can all agree. There is a terrific article in The New York Times (of course) this past Sunday on that very subject. (See link below). Check out this statistic from the article: "Manufacturing’s contribution to gross domestic product — roughly equivalent to national income — has declined to just 11.7 percent last year from as much as 28 percent in the 1950s, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis." The thing is, right now companies can get tax deductions to take this work offshore. It seems some representative or representatives in Washington should propose a law rescinding any and all tax deductions or tax credits that would take manufacturing offshore, wouldn't you think? I've said this before. Why should we reward any company in this nation, to take manufacturing companies and work and jobs outside the country? It's crazy. It makes no sense. Why can't this happen now? It should have already taken place, for that matter, long ago. Here's hoping. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/business/is-manufacturing-falling-off-the-us-radar-screen.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

Why do we keep allowing people and companies to take money (and manufacturing) offshore??

Here we go again.  This just out from Reuters:

U.S. starts new amnesty for offshore tax cheats

(Reuters) - Wealthy tax evaders with assets stashed offshore can come clean with U.S. authorities under a new amnesty program with reduced penalties, the government said on Tuesday."It gives people a chance to come in before we find them," Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman said.

Yeah?  Well, I and a lot of people I know down here at this end of the food chain say "screw 'em!".  Let's hunt these bloodsuckers down like the low-life scum they are, try 'em and prosecute them as soon as possible.

"Come clean"?  "Reduced penalties"?  Why is this not a form of treason? 

Let's go after these people and corporations that do this crap. 

And while we're at it, let's--as I've said here many times--do away with any and all tax deductions for taking any money, but especially manufacturing, offshore.  Why does all that not make sense?  And it seems to make a great deal of sense now, with the deficits and spending we've got thanks to Dubya's two wars he took us into.

Let's stop being stupid and giving away the store.

To repeat:  let's go after these people.

Links:  http://mattpayton.tumblr.com/post/3200660608
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/08/us-usa-taxes-amnesty-idUSTRE7174K920110208?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29

It's one thing to say we shouldn't tax companies much...

But it's quite another, I think--and easily done--to say that we shouldn't be giving tax breaks to big, extremely profitable industries, don't you agree?

Like "Big Oil"?

Check this out, from Political Animal and The Washington Monthly this morning: 

GET THE ENERGY SECTOR OFF THE DOLE.... With global warming deniers about to take charge of the House of Representatives, there would seem to be little hope for major clean energy legislation in this Congress. But all is not lost, argues Jeffrey Leonard in the latest issue of the Washington Monthly. Last fall's election let loose political forces that President Obama can tap to set us on a path to a sustainable energy future with a simple proposal: eliminate all energy subsidies.

 Yes, eliminate them all -- for oil, coal, gas, nuclear, ethanol, even for wind and solar. It will be better for national security, the budget deficit, and, believe it or not, the environment. Green energy sources get only the tiniest sliver of the overall federal subsidy pie, so they'll have a competitive advantage in the long term if all subsidies, including the huge ones for fossil fuels, are eliminated. In addition, deep trends in America's energy supply, including discoveries of huge natural gas reserves, will over time create favorable terrain for wind, solar, and other energy sources that liberals love -- but only if our entrenched system of subsidies doesn't gum up the works. And while getting the energy sector off the dole may have once been politically impossible, with anti-pork Tea Partiers loose in Washington and deficit cutting in the air, the moment may finally be right.

From the original article Mr. Benen is referring to:

Energy subsidies are the sordid legacy of more than sixty years of politics as usual in Washington, and they cost us somewhere around $20 billion a year. To put that sum in perspective, that’s more than the State Department’s entire budget. It’s also enough to send half a million Americans to college each year with all expenses paid. Energy subsidies undermine the working of the free market, and they make rational approaches to long-term energy challenges and climate change impossible. They are not an aid to energy independence or environmental stewardship. They are an impediment.

 Doesn't this make sense? 

Why should we give tax breaks, for pity's sake, to the oil industry?  Does anyone think they won't make a profit?  Who could be for keeping things as they are, I mean, besides the industry itself? 

Libertarians, Conservatives, the Tea Party, Democrats, Consevatives, Liberals--everybody ought to be behind this.

And while we're at it, let me bring up here, yet again, why doesn't some Congressional representative bring up a bill to do away with tax deductions to any industry to take manufacturing offshore?

You know, sometimes things just aren't that difficult.

This is an example of two right here.

Link to original post:  http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_01/027369.php
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2011/1101.leonard-2.html

Can't we kill the tax deductions for taking American jobs offshore? Please?

Following are just two of the "19 Facts About the De-industrialization of America That Will Make You Weep" from Business Insider:

• One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.
• The Census Bureau says 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty, which is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

If you just look at these two alone, you can see that China is rising and increasing its manufacturing, money and power, while, at the same time, we--the US--are losing our money, manufacturing capacity and power.


But check this out---when the Democrats put up a bill to do away with tax incentives given to companies that take jobs offshore, the Republicans voted it down.  


Naturally.  If it's by the Democrats, they have to vote against it, even if it's good for the country.


Let me say again, folks:  If the Democrats come up with something, anything, good for this country between now and November, 2012's election, the Republicans are going to vote against it, country be damned.


Of course, they won't want to vote for anything this President wants, either, good or bad for the country, same thing, but they also don't want to vote for anything their corporate owners or overlords or whatever you want to call them, don't like or want.


Unless we can get the Republican House to do things good for the American people, the American manufacturing base (and I don't mean just more tax deductions for companies and corporations) and the American people, we're in a world of hurt.


It doesn't look good for us.

Link to original post:  http://www.businessinsider.com/deindustrialization-factory-closing-2010-9#the-united-states-has-lost-approximately-42400-factories-since-2001-1