Blue Dogs/ConservaDems: Your moment of truth: Obama to close offshore tax havens.

[seafan]

President Obama wants to shut down these offshore tax havens.



Doug Mills/The New York Times
While most Americans paid their fair share of taxes, President Obama said, “there are others who are shirking theirs, and many are aided and abetted by a broken tax system.” May 4, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama presented a far-reaching set of proposals on Monday that are aimed at the tax benefits enjoyed by companies and wealthy individuals harboring cash in offshore accounts.

These steps, he said, would be the first in a much broader effort to fix a “broken tax system.”

Mr. Obama made the announcement in the Grand Foyer of the White House, standing alongside Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, Douglas Shulman. His remarks echoed the sentiment he voiced again and again during the presidential campaign, when he pledged to crack down on "illegal overseas tax evasion."

The proposed tax overhaul, which will be fully unveiled later this week when the White House presents a more detailed budget, could help raise $210 billion in revenues over 10 years, the administration estimates.

.....

How about that, Blue Dogs and ConservaDems?



Will you support the rebuilding of our country's financial health, by shutting down the greed of corporations that escape paying their share of taxes? After all, "fiscal responsibility" is your motto.

OR, will you vote with your corporate benefactors, showing your disdain for the American people?




Checkmate.

[monmouth]

1. We need to pay special attention to those Blue Dogs. It will be interesting

to see and hear their reactions. How I would love to vote each and every one of them out...

[dgibby]

13. My disdain for the Blue Dogs is lower than my disdain for Repukes.

Also, I find the term "Blue Dog" insulting to dogs.

[OHdem10]

2. Right on!!!!

[pleah]

3. K&R

[Cosmocat]

4. It is going to be interesting to see what the talking point ...

is going to be with these.

It is going to be VERY hard for the GOP to flat out bicker over closing off shore tax loopholes for the ultra wealthy with things the way they are now.

It is going to be entertaining to see what disingenious Orwellian nonsense they come up with try to make this out to be a major travesty ...

[Deja Q]

5. No doubt they will try to find a way...

A "I'm sick of high taxes" person did the usual shtick this morning. I mentioned "President Obama has already cut taxes on the working class, unlike his predecessor who simply cut them for the higher classes only." I received a quiet grunt in return.

Some people are not yet convinced, or have mindsets that I am currently not fathoming. President Obama has come through on their wants before and they still act as if nothing has happened. They need to, get this, get real.

[Marr]

10. I think I know what the line will be.

They'll estimate the amount of money that's presently being stolen via these tax loopholes, then claim that closing those loopholes is taxing "success" by $XXX billion. The words "tax loophole" and "tax shelter" will never be uttered. They may even call it a "Success Tax".

[theoldman]

6. Where there is a will, there is a way.

People will always find a way to cheat on their taxes. I would bet that only about 10% of the money will end up in the governments hands.

[seafan]

11. '.... hiring 800 new I.R.S. staff to tighten international enforcement.' I like that part.

Bush got rid of as many as he could at the IRS, so there would be fewer of them to investigate his buddies.


IRS may cut lawyers who audit the rich, NYT

By David Cay Johnston
July 23, 2006

The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts of their fortunes to their children and others.

The administration plans to cut the jobs of 157 of the agency's 345 estate-tax lawyers, plus 17 support personnel, within 70 days. Kevin Brown, an IRS deputy commissioner, confirmed the cuts.

.....

Bush Arrogantly Halves IRS Auditors For Wealthiest Few After Congress Says “No” To His Cuts, July 25, 2006








Bush’s IRS Quietly Slashing Corporate Taxes

Think Progress
December 10, 2008

The Wonk Room and ThinkProgress have been documenting the many last-minute regulatory changes that President Bush’s administration is pushing through as his term winds to a close. White House spokesman Tony Fratto’s assertions aside, the changes weaken health care, workers rights, and expose the environment to further pollution and irresponsible behavior.

But the Bush administration is also making sure to wreck the tax system on its way out the door. Today, Time’s Stephen Gandel reported that, in the last year, the Internal Revenue Service has been “unusually aggressive in doing what it can to lower corporate taxes, going above and beyond what has been allowed in the past”:

The IRS this year has issued 113 notices, many of which will lower the taxes companies will pay this year and in the future. That breaks the previous record of 111 in 2006, and is nearly double the 65 issued in the last year of Bill Clinton’s presidency.

These changes “drain billions of dollars of badly needed tax revenue at a time when the federal deficit is mushrooming.” Gandel also notes that “many of the changes may lower corporate tax revenue for years to come.”

One of the more egregious examples of Bush’s various gifts to big business was a change to the tax code — enacted in the midst of the $700 billion bailout debate — which gave “American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.” Gandel notes that Wells Fargo will receive a $5 billion tax break from this change, while Capital One will receive a $500 million windfall.

Perhaps the largest windfall though, will come from a proposed change stating “companies that lose money in any given year are entitled to a rebate on money they have paid in taxes for the prior two years“:

For instance, in 2008 there are projected to be 107 companies in the S&P 1500 that will lose money, as much as $80 billion. About half of those companies were profitable in 2007, making nearly $30 billion as a group. That means, based on an average corporate tax rate of about 30%, those companies could receive as much as $10 billion in tax rebates from last year alone.

As the Wonk Room has noted, the tax code is already riddled with “tax loopholes, shelters, and giveaways” that minimize corporate taxes. The United States currently raises below average corporate tax revenue and will be facing record deficits and a rapidly climbing debt in the coming years. With widespread federal spending necessary to stimulate the economy, changes to further lower corporate tax revenue are ones the country can not afford.

Ladies and gentlemen, America has been robbed blind.





(see Think Progress link for many internal links)

[HelenWheels]

7. WI Blue Dog

Sen. Kohl (D) is a Blue Dog because he is a corporatist. I don't think he will run again but if he did he probably wouldn't even have an opponent. He doesn't like to be called a Blue Dog he says he belongs to a Democratic Group for Progress. Haha.

[Phred42]

8. Blue Dogs: The Other Republicans

[walkaway]

9. I keep having to remind myself that we actually have a president...

who is trying to give us the opportunity to fix what is wrong with this country. He's talking to us and he expects us to insist on the change. It's incredible.

I hope we can do it.

[OmahaBlueDog]

12. I consider myself a BlueDog, and I say "Hell yes!- it's about time"

Put more simply - I'm pro AMERICAN business. I'm willing to work with foreign companies that invest in America, and I think a strong Canada and Mexico are in our interest.

Outsourcing domestic jobs and playing shell games with money that should be taxed don't fit that model - at least in my mind.

[Joanne98]

14. The Conservadems will vote against it.

[lunatica]

15. That's 21 Billion a year. Enough to pay for universal health care?

[Zhade]

16. Suck it, DLCers.

He's still not one of you.

[tomreedtoon]

17. Obama wants this? People in Hell want ice water.

Talking about corporate greed is one thing. Doing something about it is another. Obama would have to get everyone angry at the corporations - the public IS angry, but he would have to take the responsibility to encourage and direct that anger. And I think he's too nice a guy to do it.