Obama Ponders Executive Action to Penalize 'Corporate Deserters'
Wreckers. Wreckers, all.
The Obama administration is weighing plans to circumvent Congress and act on its own to curtail tax benefits for United States companies that relocate overseas to lower their tax bills, seeking to stanch a recent wave of so-called corporate inversions, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said on Tuesday.
Mr. Lew said at a conference in New York last month that he did not believe he had the power to act alone on the issue. But Mr. Obama recently delivered a speech decrying inversions, and administration officials had been evaluating the legality of unilaterally limiting them.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Here's a novel idea: Lower or eliminate corporate taxes so that corporations will actually want to stay in the US voluntarily.
Another idea, tax locally instead of globally, like members of the EU do.
and Japan. And every other OECD country, basically.
The Corporate Income Tax needs to go altogether. Canada's is 15%, Sweden's is 22%, and here we sit with the highest in the world, near 40% when combined with State taxes.
We only copy Europe and Canada when its expensive new programs, not any of their actual reforms, see.
Wow, this asshole wants to go out in a blaze of regulatory glory
You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until after November. He'll go Full Retard.
That this country ever elected this piece of human debris ?twice?.says a lot.
The DNA of the US has changed in a large way. If you're still part of the freedom and liberty crowd, the future is not very bright.
"administration officials had been evaluating the legality of unilaterally limiting them"
"Oh, Mr. President, do not let so great an achievement suffer from any taint of legality."
?Philander C. Knox
So, it looks like Obama IS in favor of building a wall: not to keep out illegals, but to compel businesses to remain here against their self interest. Mr. Obama, don't build that wall!
The Berlin wall wasn't built to keep people out...
The tax issue is one thing. The executive order is where my focus is on this now. He has no authority to do that.
This excuse used by the left and Obama himself - that Republicans aren't doing their job - it doesn't even begin to make sense.
Their job isn't to please liberals. It's to serve there constituents. They don't need to pass a bill to address every perceived problem the left comes up with to rile up their base.
This is the whole point of having division of power in government. Sides disagree, and if they disagree strongly enough and have the power, they can stop the other side from getting its way. This isn't complicated stuff. It's how our government has functioned for a pretty long time now.
If this was just rhetoric, it would be fine. But they are using it as an excuse to disregard the constitution. We might as well not have a Congress. Not because they aren't doing their job, but because progressives have decided they just want a king.
For a group that screams Atlas Shrugged is a ludicrous fantasy you'd think they'd stop trying to make it dead on right.
I know right...
I know! Someone should write a document full of directives and commandments for the government to restrict itself. We could even make the holder of Obama's office the enforcer of the provisions of this document. Then he'll have no choice but to limit his powers!
/minarchy for the win