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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (14512)	10/30/2003 4:09:58 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793904

The company that left Louisiana is going to pay a 5 percent tax on the widgets they make overseas, and the company that stayed in Louisiana is going to pay a 35 percent tax,'' said Sen. John B. Breaux, D-La. ``If that isn't an incentive to leave, I don't know what is.'' well duh, senator breax you'd think a southerner would know a thing or two about horses, barns and doors. bayarea.com Amnesty proposed for overseas profits U.S. TECH COMPANIES BACK SENATE BILL FOR SIX-MONTH TAX HOLIDAY By Edmund L. Andrews New York Times WASHINGTON - U.S. corporations that have deferred taxes for years on the profits they made overseas could be in line for a huge windfall from Congress. Hoping to bring more investment to the United States, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would give a one-time tax holiday to companies that have accumulated as much as $400 billion in foreign profits on which they have yet to pay American taxes. U.S. companies can usually defer paying taxes on foreign profits as long as they keep the money outside the United States. Much of that money is reinvested in foreign operations, and some is parked in passive investments. The Senate bill, which is part of a much broader bill to overhaul laws on international corporate taxation, would let companies bring those profits back and pay a tax rate of only 5.25 percent. Supporters say the six-month tax holiday could lure as much as $300 billion back into the United States, which in turn would increase investment and create jobs. To press their case, companies such as Hewlett-Packard have formed a broad coalition that includes the likes of Eli Lilly, Merck, Intel, Sun Microsystems and Dell Computer. One of the coalition's main lobbyists is Bill Archer, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and his former chief of staff, Donald Carlson. ``The question is, do we want this money invested in equipment and plants in Egypt or do we want it invested in the United States?'' Carlson said. ``To get this much bang for the buck is a rarity.'' But many tax experts, including top tax officials in the Bush administration, say the move would be a mistake because it would validate the strategies of companies that spent years sheltering their overseas profits. ``The company that left Louisiana is going to pay a 5 percent tax on the widgets they make overseas, and the company that stayed in Louisiana is going to pay a 35 percent tax,'' said Sen. John B. Breaux, D-La. ``If that isn't an incentive to leave, I don't know what is.'' Critics also warn that there is no guarantee the companies will invest their repatriated profits in new factories or larger workforces. Indeed, Republican lawmakers defeated an amendment offered by Breaux on Wednesday that would have required companies to reinvest their foreign profits in things such as new equipment. `A good deal' The biggest beneficiaries of the legislation would be technology companies such as HP and Intel as well as pharmaceutical giants such as Merck and Eli Lilly. Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said Wednesday that the amnesty could spark a large infusion of capital into the U.S. economy and stimulate domestic spending by U.S. companies. Intel says it has deferred taxes on $6.3 billion of foreign income. ``This bill is a good deal,'' Mulloy said. ``We support it from a larger domestic economic stimulus point of view.'' If the bill passes both houses, Intel would have to evaluate how much cash to return to domestic accounts, he said. HP, which has been one of the bill's most visible supporters, says it has accumulated $14.5 billion in foreign earnings and kept them outside the country, in part to avoid paying the U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent. Eli Lilly, whose products include the anti-depressant Prozac, says it has $8 billion in untaxed overseas profits. Lawmakers say the measure has a strong chance of becoming law. The Senate bill has support from most Republicans as well as some Democrats. In the House, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Bill Thomas of California, has proposed a similar plan. Despite their unhappiness about the bill, administration officials made it clear Wednesday that they would not try to veto the measure because they are more concerned about passing the broader legislative package. The main purpose of the bill is to replace a tax break for U.S. exporters that has been declared an illegal subsidy by the World Trade Organization. If the United States does not repeal the tax break, which allows American manufacturers to avoid taxes on exports by establishing off-shore sales corporations, the European Union has threatened to retaliate with $4 billion in tariffs on products from the United States. 10 percent break The bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee would reduce the corporate tax rate on U.S. manufacturers by as much as 10 percent and offer some modest new permanent tax breaks for American companies operating overseas. By far the most controversial of those measures is the proposed tax holiday on foreign profits, which supporters call the ``Homeland Reinvestment Act.'' The idea has tremendous allure to lawmakers because it offers the possibility of bringing at least a brief flood of money into the United States. The Joint Committee on Taxation, the non-partisan congressional agency that calculates the effect of tax proposals on revenue, estimates that a six-month tax amnesty for overseas profits could bring back $135 billion.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (14512)	10/30/2003 4:21:29 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793904

Amazing news! Companies that get Government contracts give money and have links to Politicians! Must be a slow day at the wire service. I had a couple of contracts for personnel services from Orange Country in the 70s. I was told when I got them what my donation would be to the Supervisors involved. ______________________________________________ October 30, 2003 Report Links Iraq Deals to Bush Donations By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 11:32 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Companies awarded $8 billion in contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan have been major campaign donors to President Bush, and their executives have had important political and military connections, according to a study released Thursday. The study of more than 70 U.S. companies and individual contractors turned up more than $500,000 in donations to the president's 2000 campaign, more than they gave collectively to any other politician over the past dozen years. The report was released by the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based research organization that produces investigative articles on special interests and ethics in government. Its staff includes journalists and researchers. The Center concluded that most of the 10 largest contracts went to companies that employed former high-ranking government officials, or executives with close ties to members of Congress and even the agencies awarding their contracts. Major contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan were awarded by the Bush administration without competitive bids, because agencies said competition would have taken too much time to meet urgent needs in both countries. ``No single agency supervised the contracting process for the government,'' Center executive director Charles Lewis said. ``This situation alone shows how susceptible the contracting system is to waste, fraud and cronyism.'' J. Edward Fox, an assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, took issue with Lewis' statement and aspects of the report. ``It would ... be incorrect to suggest that there is no overall oversight of this process,'' he wrote the Center. ``The USAID inspector general's review of all Iraq contracts which was requested by USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios on April 14th has shown that all Iraq contracts to date have been done in compliance'' with federal regulations. The top contract recipient was the Halliburton subsidiary KBR, with more than $2.3 billion awarded to support the U.S. military and restore Iraq's oil industry. Halliburton was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney before he resigned to run with Bush in 2000. Halliburton's top executive, Dave Lesar, said Wednesday he was offended by criticism of the company's Iraq work but believed it was ``less about Halliburton and more about external political issues.'' ``As a company uniquely qualified to take on this difficult assignment, we will continue to bring all of our global resources to bear at this critical time in the Middle East. We have served the military for over 50 years and have no intention of backing down at this point,'' he said. Bechtel was second with a $1 billion capital construction contract involving Iraq's utilities, telecommunications, railroads, ports, schools, health care facilities, bridges, roads and airports. The company's Internet site says, ``We do engage in the political process, as do most companies in the United States. We have legitimate policy interests and positions on matters before Congress, and we express them in many ways, including support for elected officials who support those positions. ``We do not expect or receive political favors or government contracts as a result of those contributions.'' The Center's analysis of contractor political donations showed: --The top 10 contractors contributed $11 million to national political parties, candidates and political action committees since 1990. --Fourteen of the companies won contracts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Those companies, combined, have given more than $23 million in political contributions since 1990. --Most contractors, their political action committees and their employees have contributed just under $49 million to national political campaigns and parties since that year. --In the same time period, contractor donations to Republican Party committees outpaced contributions to the Democrats, $12.7 million to $7.1 million. Many of the companies with large contracts have important political connections. Former Secretary of State George Shultz is a member of Bechtel's board of directors, although he has no management role, according to the company's Web site. Riley Bechtel, the chairman and chief executive officer, was named early this year to the President's Export Council, which advises the president on programs to improve U.S. trade. Jack Sheehan, senior vice president in Bechtel's petroleum and chemicals business, served on the Defense Policy Board, which advises the defense secretary on a variety of issues. Other contractors also had connections. Among those cited by the Center: David Kay, head of the Bush administration's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is a former vice president of Science Applications International Corp. He left the company in October 2002. Christopher ``Ryan'' Henry left the same company as a vice president in February 2003 to become principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy. Scott Spangler, principal owner of Chemonics International, was a senior U.S. Agency for International Development official during the first Bush administration. The company receives 90 percent of its business from USAID. Sullivan Haave Associates Inc. was founded by Carol Haave, currently the deputy assistant secretary of defense for security and information operations. The Center's findings are based, in part, on 73 Freedom of Information Act requests and an analysis of a federal contractor database. nytimes.com