Salon: Obama Backs Off On Big Business

[Fumesucker]

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/?last_story=/tech/htww/2009/10/13/another_obama_promise_broken/

Scour, if you will, today's Wall Street Journal opinion page to see if there is any mention of how one of the Journal's lead stories on Monday, "Business Fends of Tax Hit," conclusively proves that Obama administration policies resemble nothing close to socialism. You will scour in vain. The silence is deafening.

Funny -- you'd think there would be more cheering. The Journal's Neil King Jr. and Elizabeth Williamson make a pretty definitive case that Obama has abandoned one of the planks of his campaign, his proposal to "end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas."

Specifically, the Obama administration had hoped to raise $200 billion dollars by ending the tax break that allows "allows American multinationals to defer paying taxes on revenues earned abroad until companies repatriate them." The WSJ article is a blow-by-blow description of how big business rallied its forces to oppose closing the tax-deferral loophole, and, apparently, won the battle.

The news gives us yet another distressing benchmark with which to judge how the Obama administration is living up to its own rhetoric. As recently as May, Obama had thundered forth on this promise: From "Remarks by the President on International Tax Reform:

And yet, even as most American citizens and businesses meet these responsibilities, there are others who are shirking theirs. And many are aided and abetted by a broken tax system, written by well-connected lobbyists on behalf of well-heeled interests and individuals. It's a tax code full of corporate loopholes that makes it perfectly legal for companies to avoid paying their fair share. It's a tax code that makes it all too easy for a number -- a small number of individuals and companies to abuse overseas tax havens to avoid paying any taxes at all. And it's a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York.


<snip>

More at the link..

[Mimosa]

1. That's my gripe about the Administration: they're not for US

The more things change the more they remain the same.

And yet, even as most American citizens and businesses meet these responsibilities, there are others who are shirking theirs. And many are aided and abetted by a broken tax system, written by well-connected lobbyists on behalf of well-heeled interests and individuals. It's a tax code full of corporate loopholes that makes it perfectly legal for companies to avoid paying their fair share. It's a tax code that makes it all too easy for a number -- a small number of individuals and companies to abuse overseas tax havens to avoid paying any taxes at all. And it's a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York.

[debbierlus]

2. Kick....

I don't know why so many on this board continue to defend these type of non-actions by the President.

[ProSense]

3. Obviously, the WSJ is

wrong.

[ProSense]

4. Watch the inaccurate story in the OP get rec'd up while the facts are ignored. n/t

[redqueen]

5. This is when I stopped reading:

"and, apparently, won the battle."

Oh, apparently? Yeah... pass.

[ProSense]

8. Yeah, when it passes you'll find something else to complain about.

The WSJ article is false.

[redqueen]

11. Hehehe... I think we're getting our wires crossed here.

:)

I meant that's when I stopped reading the Salon piece.

[maglatinavi]

10. red queen

If this true, it makes my disappointment of Obama greater and greater...What the heck is wrong with democrats? Why don't we all raid white house faxes, e-mails, telephones in protest? Gee, why???:rant: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[redqueen]

12. Yeah... if it's true.

I don't waste much energy getting all worked up over possibilities.

I do write to or call the WH and Congress several times a week.

Good luck avoiding media BS. :hi:

[Fumesucker]

6. LOL.. The *first* sentence in your link..

President Barack Obama remains committed to reforming international corporate taxation to end "unfair loopholes," although congressional tax writers and others doubt that will happen without broader reforms such as cutting the top corporate tax rate.

Cutting the top corporate tax rate.. Hmm.. where have I heard *that* before, eh?

[ProSense]

7. "President Barack Obama remains committed to reforming international corporate taxation"

Now doesn't that state exactly the opposite of the Salon piece?

[Fumesucker]

9. "Reform" consisting of lowering top corporate tax rates..

And Obama was committed to opposing FISA that included corporate immunity at one time too..

What happened in that instance, eh?

[AllentownJake]

13. More Change we Can Believe in

[FiveGoodMen]

14. By now it's obvious that OBAMA doesn't believe in change.

[AllentownJake]

15. Barack Obama

like lots of politicians before him and after him believes in one thing, himself. Is he better than the last pseudo emperor we've had in the decline of the American Empire. By leaps and bounds. Is he going to fix 30 years of bad economic policy that has taken the American Empire to the precipice of collapse, no there is way too much political risk in that. He'll be status quo and pray that the collapse doesn't happen under his watch .