Quote of the Day
Be the change that you want to see in the world.
Gandhi
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Jack Lew, Corporate Inversions, and JOTY
Jack Lew recently attempted to tweak some policies to make corporate inversions less palatable by effectively trying to make it difficult to repatriate cashflows from foreign investment back to the US. Now, why? It's like cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. In essence, the Treasury want to grab a piece of the action. This has the effect of discouraging US investment and related jobs. Talk about penny-wise, pound-foolish. (Under the worldwide tax system of the US, foreign-based income can be deferred until they are repatriated. As I've explained
in this recent post, US-based income/taxes are unaffected by the inversion; under the predominant territorial tax system, foreign income is excluded from home domestic taxation.) For Jack Lew's unconscionable attempt to implement economically illiterate policy, he earns a nomination of my tongue-in-cheek JOTY competition.
It's hard for me to understand why my readership seemed to soften over the past week, I thought my above-cited one-off would attract more attention than it has this far, because I thought it was a good essay on the "you didn't build that" nonsense. But in any event I can across
this post which largely reinforces the points I made in yesterday's one-off post. Let me excerpt some key points:
I’m frustrated that the actions of Burger King, AbbVie and Chiquita have yet again made me so angry at my government. Once again, American politicians and bureaucrats are attacking the symptoms rather than disease; lawmakers and bureaucrats have no choice but to siphon money from every single spigot they can find, regardless of the morality of doing so.
Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told Congress that reducing the number of tax inversions was “imperative” for America. He — and a media industry that do not quite grasp the difference between that which is legal and that which is immoral — keep referring to inversions as a “tax dodge” and insist that companies are relocating simply to avoid paying income taxes here at home.
A brief comment here: Foroohar, in the essay my post criticized, basically took her column title from Jack Lew's pathetic "tax dodge" soundbite. I find it utterly pathetic for a mainstream columnist to copy and paste from White House talking points.
Most countries in the world enforce a territorial tax system, taxing their residents and local companies on the income they generate in the domestic market. They do not reach across global borders and try to claim that money earned elsewhere is subject to taxes at home...Governments raise taxes to provide domestic services — and domestic services only. It’s not like the U.S. is paying for interstates or border protection or welfare assistance in Canada or the U.K. or Japan. Why, then, should a U.S. company pay taxes to America on sales collected overseas? The company already pays taxes in the local jurisdiction, thereby meeting its obligation to assist with those domestic services.
Review the capitalized text in my original post making exactly the same point (the excerpted post was published today)
Idiots, like Michigan Democrat Sen. Carl Levin, run around upbraiding companies for being unpatriotic. It’s one of the reasons America now ranks 32nd among 34 countries in the latest International Tax Competitiveness Index.
Then there's this troubling anti-competitive attempt to implement a global State taxing cartel:
The Organization for Co-Operation and Development (OECD), a primary ringleader in the Evil Empire that’s attacking self-rule and pushing for a one-world financial system, is calling on governments around the world to essentially harmonize their tax systems in order to “fight corporate tax planning.” Here’s the question to consider. What’s more likely — that the U.S. lowers it rates closer to compete with the global average of developed countries … or that the U.S. forces other countries to raise their rates to match the U.S.?
The author's point is that the preferred solution--that the US competes globally by reforming its obsolete business tax policy--is not likely, because the spendaholic political whores in DC are addicted to legal plunder. There are
well-known issues to cartels (e.g., cheating). I think OECD countries with tax advantages over the US do not want to contract their tax base by raising taxes. I am skeptical about a conspiracy, that the US could impose its convoluted tax regime globally. I actually want to see a shift away from economically inefficient income tax systems to more of a VAT/consumption tax approach, perhaps in combination with a small, flat means-tested income tax to address regressive effects.
At Last: Holder Is Going... Going...
I have written various comments on Holder (e.g.,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here, and
here). I've long been a critic of the lawless administration, in particular, things like pick and choose policies of enforcement (e.g. refusal to prosecute New Black Panther voter intimidation at a Pennsylvania precinct during the 2008 election, immigration, even threats to release undocumented aliens after the Arizona immigration law), politicization of the KSM trial (there was a relevant kerfuffle about terrorist vs. criminal behavior), threats of federal prosecution of Zimmerman after a state court failed to convict him, the botched handling of the Fast and Furious scandal, etc. Holder lost my confidence a long time ago.
Obama's Latte Salute
Disrespectful and stupid. It looks like his arm is draping his coat, and he steps off the plane holding a cup of coffee in his right hand and suddenly realizes at the bottom of the stairs that two Marines are saluting him and he needs to return the salute.
Of course, the pathetic entertainment portal immediately jumps to Obama's defense pointing out there's no federal requirement to return a salute and besides, Bush once returned a salute awkwardly while carrying his dog.
First, and this is a signature line in the blog, if there's one thing Obama knows, it's symbolism. We are not talking about a rookie President; this is his sixth year in office, and I'm sure there are scores of times he's gotten off planes with service members waiting to greet him. If you're going to salute, salute properly; don't give a half-assed effort. Arguing that returning a salute while simultaneously holding a cup of coffee is professionally acceptable lacks common sense--Barack Obama knows it.
Why is Obama holding a cup of coffee coming off a plane? As a coffee drinker, I've never come off a plane holding coffee. Flight attendants usually make a couple of trips through the cabin to collect any waste, including coffee cups, before landing. What is it--Air Force One carries some special blend he can't get locally? Can't he find a gofer to fetch him a fresh cup of coffee for his next meeting or meal?
It reminds me of a lesson I learned as a Navy ensign in Orlando. I was passing by the messhall one day when a bunch of enlisted came out and spotted me. I was trapped and they knew it. They quickly lined up to walk past me, and I ended up giving dozens of salutes. Lesson learned; I avoided walking near the messhall the remainder of my assignment.
Do I think this is as bad as, say, his military interventions? No. But when the Commander-in-Chief does things like this in a half-assed manner, it has an effect on troop morale. Do you remember the McChrystal termination/resignation?
[In a Rolling Stone article] he and his staff mocked civilian government officials, including Joe Biden, National Security Advisor James L. Jones, US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl W. Eikenberry, and Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke. McChrystal was not quoted as being directly critical of the president or the president's policies, but several comments from his aides in the article reflected their perception of McChrystal's disappointment with Obama on the first two occasions of their meeting.
Now really, do you remember how Obama dithered for weeks over the Afghanistan surge operation? But when it came to a general mocking civilian leadership, a thin-skinned Obama couldn't fire McChrystal fast enough. (I'm not necessarily arguing against the decision; whereas McChrystal is entitled to his opinions, as a professional soldier under a Constitution which has the military reporting to civilian leadership, he was disrespectful, and he knew better.) I think as the Commander-in-Chief, Obama should not have made an impulsive knee-jerk decision to replace his key general in Afghanistan in order to provide a more timely transition and a face-saving exit; there were risks to the mission in doing so. (Given my current perspective, I would not have supported a surge; at the time, I was hoping that a stabilized Afghanistan would allow for an Iraq-like exit.)
The point is that Obama made it clear symbolically that he valued his coffee as much as military protocol. That's a terrible message to the troops and grossly incompetent management. Now I don't expect our troops to respond with anything less than professionalism, even if (I were to guess) most personnel consider him an incompetent, arrogant jerk, the office of the Commander-in-Chief itself deserves professionalism, regardless of the merits of whom the voters put into that office.
Facebook Corner
(IPI).
The city of Chicago’s four government-run pension funds each beat their expected investment returns in 2013.
Yet, despite the higher-than-expected market returns, the city’s funding ratio dropped to 34% to 35%. And the city’s unfunded pension debt grew by nearly $800 million.
I'm beginning to get impatient with the crony unionist trolls on the IPI threads and suggest others start flaming the cockroaches. This is a serious problem, and you have all these economically illiterate parasites in a state of denial. I'm so sick and tired of hearing the whining about "we earned our unpaid-for pensions, fair and square, and it's not our problem that our union leadership didn't demand accountability and that we are demanding future taxpayers bail out our cushy retirement at the expense of essential services." PLEASE...
End the TIF scam. Fund the pensions. Problem solved.
Greedy union bastards need to pay for their own goddamn retirement like the rest of us and stop being parasites.
http://www.forbes.com/.../the-worlds-most-outrageous.../ This article tells the story. Maybe you can obtain an education.
Is this troll really going to compare private sector pensions to public sector pensions? Public sector pensions come at the point of a gun: I am robbed to pay the benefit of crony parasites. I have no choice--it's not like I can choose the fascist monopoly of my choice. In the private sector--and McKesson is a publicly traded company--there are industry competitors. I have my own opinions about whether Hammergren's compensation is commensurate with his executive performance; I do not own the stock but if I'm a stockholder, executive compensation comes at my expense, and if I don't think he is at least paying for his own costs in added benefit to the company, I'll sell my stock.
But unlike the "progressive" troll who is trying to pull a predictable, morally corrupt "Politics of Envy" card, I'm not going to bitch about someone else's success. In the economy, no player, including McKesson, is guaranteed future success. The only bastards that are guaranteed income are the government, which can legally pick people's pockets and operate monpolies which could be run better and cheaper in the private sector.
(IPI).
From the Daily Herald: "Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn wants his tax plans put into action right after the Nov. 4 election, echoing his key campaign argument that the state can't afford to let income taxes drop at the end of the year.
Quinn has called for keeping the state's 2011 income tax hike intact instead of letting it lower Jan. 1 as scheduled. Without the money from the higher income tax rate, he says, the state faces serious cuts to schools and a growing pile of unpaid bills."
The state cannot sustain its current spending. It needs more productivity from its limited resources, and this means taking on the corrupt special interests like the public unions. It means things like criminal law reforms to lessen the burden of the justice system and prisons; it mean privatizing public sector functions, reversing anti-economic growth policies. And when you realize that under a decade of Democrat leadership, Illinois has the worst pension system in the country and after several years of surtaxes have resulted in some of the lowest rated bonds in the country, Illinois needs dramatic change and a fresh perspective in Springfield. And it starts with the involuntary retirement of Quinn and Madigan.
Proposals
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall |
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists
Barry Manilow, "When I Wanted You"
