Beware the New Corporate Tax-Cut Scam: LIFT Is a Big Lie

[Bill USA]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/15266-beware-the-new-corporate-tax-cut-scam-lift-is-a-big-lie

First it was Fix the Debt, with tax-dodging corporations “leading the charge for massive new corporate tax cuts paid for with cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.” Now there’s a new “LIFT America coalition,” pushing for massive, massive corporate tax cuts, without bothering about cutting benefits. LIFT stands for “Let’s Invest for Tomorrow,” but as Citizens For Tax Justice (CTJ) points out, it really ought to be called LIE, for “Let’s Invest Elsewhere.”

The executives who run the giant multinationals want to be let off the hook for paying taxes on profits they make outside our borders. As an Apple executive said to The New York Times, giant multinationals “don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems.” And to prove it, American corporations are holding $1.7 trillion in profits outside the country – just sitting there – rather than bringing that money home, paying the taxes due and then paying it out to shareholders or using it to “create jobs” with new factories, research facilities and equipment.

The LIFT Coalition

This corporate lobbying coalition claims that “antiquated U.S. tax laws are threatening America’s economic competitiveness.” They want their taxes lowered with a “Territorial Tax System” so they “pay home country tax rates that are competitive with those paid by foreign business rivals” (i.e. little or no taxes on their profits).

The LIFT website is full of lobbyist-speak, like “reform,” “modernize,” and “attract more investment.” When you hear lobbyists talk about “reforming” and “modernizing” things, it means that by the time they get done you’re going to have less money and the giant corporations they pay them are going to have more.

The short version of what LIFT wants: Lower corporate taxes here, plus no taxes on profits they make outside the country. These are the “antiquated U.S. tax laws … threatening America’s economic competitiveness” they are talking about. And they very well might have the money to push this through the Congress.
(more)

[santamargarita]

1. LIFT for them, FALL for us!!!