Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Doggett Offers Clear Choice Between Corporate Welfare or Public Investment?

Representative Lloyd Doggett has just issued a statement to the US House Budget Committee in response to budget cut proposals that will impact drastically on the lives, jobs and pensions of millions of ordinary Americans.

Instead of cutting education programmes and social welfare provision, he argues, the focus should be on cutting the extraordinary tax exemptions granted to corporate America. Here's a choice selection of his alternative suggestions:

"There is, for example, a much better alternative than eliminating $4 billion from early education or student financial assistance that will only deny students the means to get all of the education for which they are willing to work to achieve their full God-given potential. Instead of cutting that $4 billion, I would cut the $4 billion that is being spent every year through the Tax Code to enable Wall Street financial enterprises to avoid taxes on profits from loans and financial activities overseas and which are, at the same time, encouraging the export of American jobs.

Instead of eliminating $500 million in cancer research and other scientific research that saves lives and creates jobs in America, I would eliminate the $500 million a year spent through the Tax Code, in what's called the look-through provision, which enables multinationals to shift income earned abroad among through their foreign subsidiaries.

Instead of eliminating $3 billion a year from our crumbling bridges and roads, I would eliminate the $3 billion loophole in the Tax Code that grants a corporate tax deduction on interest charges when you borrow money to build a factory overseas without having to pay taxes on the income you earned from that factory. We need to stop exporting American jobs, exporting American manufacturing, exporting American tax revenues, and start developing a more competitive workforce and rebuilding America. And we can choose to have the same effect on the deficit by choosing to close harmful loopholes instead of yielding to harmful Republican cuts."


Tax justice is at the forefront of budget battles across the world. Politicians have a clear choice to make between corporate welfare or investment in public services. Well said Lloyd Doggett.

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