Posted on 05/22/2013 10:45:08 AM PDT by Kaslin
Senator John McCain and Senator Carl Levin have now presided over what Senator Rand Paul rightly called a “show trial.”
The Senate Mensheviks have raked Apple Computer over the coals on its practice of keeping tons and tons of money offshore.
This is money that the Mensheviks sorely need, so they can squander it on things that won’t make life better for anyone outside of K Street.
During the hearing McCain competes with former Senator Obama in teaching us legal theories that are both radical and non-existent when he contends: “Apple has violated the spirit of the law if not the letter of the law.”
Uh, Senator, there is no such thing as the spirit of the law. And BTW- you guys wrote the darn tax code, so if you are offended by it, fix it.
“I am offended by a $4 trillion government bullying,” said Senator Paul via Twitter, “berating and badgering one of America's greatest success stories.” And: “To US Senate: I say, instead of Apple executives, you should have brought in a giant mirror if you want to see who is responsible.”
And Paul is right.
What Apple does is follow a wholly legal process whereby it keeps its duty to its constituency- employees, shareholders and customers- to keep as much money for the company as possible.
That’s what businesses do. They do what’s best for their constituency. And the practice in this case is called tax avoidance, which is the same thing individuals do when you write off your mortgage expense on your tax return.
The practice however is not to be confused with tax evasion, which is what happens when someone lies about income on a tax return.
And all the parties in the Senate are familiar with difference. Sens. Levin, McCain, Paul and even Al Franken practice tax avoidance.
Tax avoidance is something that government- as represented by guys like McCain and Levin- builds into the system when they want reward some group.
Tax evasion is something they use to punish enemies.
Corporations are getting used to the shakedown that in the old days, as practiced by the mafia, used to be called the “protection racket.”
It doesn’t matter to me that Apple keeps it’s money in an overseas account. What matters to me is that they have the right to defend their property from a grasping government that acts more like the mob than the mafia does.
The economic system that we have now is so broken by worthless government that while the Federal Reserve mints $45 billion every month through quantitative easing to “save” the economy, corporations- not just Apple- carry an estimated $2 trillion in cash offshore.
At the same time the underground economy in the U.S. has reached third-world status by expanding to another $2 trillion dollars that isn’t officially part of the economy at all.
That’s $4 trillion in cash, or about 30 percent of our GDP off the books- and the government says there is something wrong with the rest of us.
While boasting some of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, U.S. politicians, with a need for higher taxes and for higher spending to keep the racket going, now intend to grandstand on a tax system that they own, wrote, manipulated and misused.
If offshore accounts provide governments around the world with accountability and competition that is sorely needed, then it’s because Levin, McCain and the U.S. Senate haven’t done their jobs.
As governments have increased the tax burden on all of us, corporations have taken advantage of their ability to move money across borders. That’s why governments hate offshore accounts so much.
It keeps ‘em honest, and of course, governments can’t have that. It would be unseemly in light of circumstances for the IRS to do the bullying right now. So the Senate has been convened to bully corporations into following the spirit of the racket since right now companies feel that they only have to strictly follow the law.
What do they think this is?
America, that’s what.
And if McCain and Levin aren’t careful, America will follow Apple offshore too.
So far Paul is stepping to the top of my list for Pres candidates.
My Dream ticket right now would be Palin/Paul
How long has McCain been in office?
Hasn’t he had plenty of time to try to fix these things?
They’re stepping in it here. Apple fanbois are mostly libs, and the libs that like Apple, probably like Apple more than they like collectivist nanny-state, oppressive government.
The thing is, this is not news. It was well publicized a couple of years ago that Steve Jobs and President Obama met and had a discussion about various aspects of American manufacturing. President Obama asked Steve Jobs to bring that money back into the U.S. and Steve Jobs told him that the money was NEVER coming back into the U.S, and why.
“I want what you’ve got” is a statement often heard emanating from the mouths of children and Marxists.
And it is increasingly heard being chanted mindlessly by congress and the president.
Perfect example of cronies straddling government and industry.
Companies, unions, etc send huge amounts of money to the congress-critters for favorable tax legislation, then the congress enacts those laws. And when the companies follow the laws to the letter, those very same congress-critters criticize the companies for not paying their taxes.
It’s really disgusting, and more to the point, if anyone should be hauled before the congress-critters, I want to know why Geof Imelt of GE wasn’t testifying?!?!
Mark
And McCain is also a big Free Trade Communist....who pushed the Free Trade deals that made it easy for Apple to off shore in the first place.
Now he is whining.
Flat tax.
NRST...
The entire D.C. economy depends on the current tax code. That and the positions of our elected representatives and their staffs who would have to undertake it and send their lobbyist pals, their campaign contributors with bags. Major overhaul is therefore not possible. I first heard the above 30 years ago, because that is how long (or longer) the country has been talking about reforming the tax system. One foreign journalist told me once he thought that a major reform is not possible because of a two party system. Welfare reform, recall, was mostly smoke and mirrors. ObamaCare passing, a major reform (for worse) was actually something of a miracle.
I would vote enthusiastically for Palin/Paul, Paul/Palin, or a ticket with Bachmann on it. They are my top 3 choices for 2016. I’m willing to entertain other options, but only true conservatives.
The key thing that Palin, Paul, and Bachmann have in common (besides conservative views) is that all three have been courageous in speaking up, even in the face of great criticism and ridicule. Watch for others to try to ride that bandwagon when it becomes a little more popular, but remember who was on it when it wasn’t.
Palin, Paul, and Bachmann have shown great courage and that is very significant to me.
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