Bernie Sanders: Here is What Could Be Fixed by the Taxes on Apple's Offshored Profits

[Playinghardball]

[BrotherIvan]

1. This is the KEY and should be the number one conversation on DU

How are we going to fix it? Who is going to fix it? Who will get the country working again for ALL Americans? How can we not just fight back the onslaught from rwnjs, but actually turn the direction of the country onto a course that works for its citizens? How do we get people good jobs and educate our children? How do we get health CARE for all who need it? How do we make sure kids aren't living in poverty and going hungry? How do we do it?

We don't just need a win in the D column, we need to change our domestic policy.

[obxhead]

7. Clinton will!

She's the most progressive corporate fighting politician ever!

[Enthusiast]

25. You nailed it, BrotherIvan!

We must have this discussion.

[BrotherIvan]

32. Maybe we should start talking about principles

An exercise in saying, this is what we want domestically. I bet we would see there is quite a lot of agreement (except on gun control). The disagreement always comes down to tactics and personality. And so we go nowhere.

[Enthusiast]

49. TPTB only want division. This much is perfectly clear. And they have zero interest in principles.

[appalachiablue]

37. Tell It! We also need to add Climate Change & the Environment to the list

[BrotherIvan]

43. Yes, we need a VISION

The funny thing is, as twisted as it is, the right has a (insane, hateful, insane) vision. It is a false vision, but it gets them to walk in lockstep.

We need a vision for now, today. That's why I think we need to talk about the WAY forward, not necessairly a single candidate.

[appalachiablue]

45. For several years I've wondered what the Dem. Vision is? Hello, listen up, we need a major

plan now to save this country. The RW 'plan' is taking over, state by state and it's looking real Red. And like it's said, the RW is organized, focused and backed by enormous $ and the Dems. aren't. That must change, even if we do it. Seems we're practically on our own now anyway except for a small vocal group of fighters like Bernie, Warren, Brown, Grayson and others-

[BrotherIvan]

46. Agreed

I think Democrats united behind Candidate Obama's message because we do hold liberal values. The trouble is I don't believe that was more than an award-winning marketing campaign. Now we need the real deal. We need a major shift and a fight for the 99%. All of the people you mentioned are in the forefront of doing that, but the mantra that "they can't win" means they don't have Democrat's support. We need to have the courage of our own convictions.

[appalachiablue]

47. Superbly marketed campaign is right. Now is the time for left thinkers to use their creativity,

intelligence and conviction to find a way around the Dem. establishment blockage, focus on an agenda and assemble people to act. A recent well done PBS documentary on The March of 1963 illustrated how leaders and associates didn't receive clearance until 8 weeks before the event, yet the ground teams and contacts worked the phones sometimes 24/7 in that short period to arrange for the several hundred thousand people who came. The workings of the Civil Rights movement for that occasion was incredibly inspiring.

Much credit for that historic action goes to the dedicated work done decades in advance by leaders, and the many involved from church leaders, teachers, civil rights activists, students, the important black press at that time and even Belafonte who brought in well known actors.

This country is in such as state of systemic dysfunction and one nasty law and shocking event occurring after another but there have to be enough people aware, willing and able to change the direction. Never known for organization, the left must amend that and create structure, clarity and unity. Perhaps not another Selma but serious measures and commitments to stave off what the result will be if we don't. And that's fairly clear to anyone who knows history or has seen major inequality and deprivation in other countries.

[BrotherIvan]

48. Spot on!!!

I have been thinking quite a lot about the Civil Rights movement and the movement in India which MLK studied extensively. How to mobilize people, how to use nonviolence, how to stand up against an overwhelming power.

I think that many Democrats in the world and DU think that change can still happen from within. The last few years have taught me that likely that is not possible. I think that Obama has been much more successful with foreign policy than with domestic because he can't touch finance. But we need to come together and push back the onslaught of whackery. I think the extreme religious positions will help that to happen strangely enough. I think people are getting extremely fed up.

But they're not ready to put down all that they have and march...yet.

[WillTwain]

2. Powerful

Think of all the money that has slipped away and how great America would be today if we taxed them a little more.

[F4lconF16]

3. Let's not forget about the military budget, either:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/11/military-jet-spending_n_5575045.html

And that's just one thing. There was a website that let you look at what you could have had instead, but I forget what it was and I can't find it.

[freshwest]

4. Small example from 2007. These kinds of details were hashed out in Olympia, too:

Makes it very personal when it's put in those terms.

There were some very angry town halls in Washington state going over how much we were losing during Bush's wars. It was starving us, not the beast. Now with reduced military costs from our area, we are still existing on pork barrel industry and refuse to vote for initiatives for progressive taxation. This dead beat thing will undo us all.

Leaving nations in the Middle East to take care of their own issues themselves and the Iran deal will starve the MIC. We must move away from applying funding to the military sector while still doing what is needed.

The amount of technological know how that the military and space program can help us all do things in peace time, too. Soldiers who came back from WW2 put those skills to work building infrastructure. PBO has tried to get Congress to direct the energy of veterans to civilian needs but has been rebuffed many times, but has had a few sucesses.

The MIC or more correctly termed, the MICC, is more interested in pork barrel and profits. But when knowledge and equipment are used in warfare, the only return is territory... But not even that. Infrastructure builds the future here at home.

JMHO.

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. Time to shock the world: "Manhattan" type project on renewable clean energy.

That would provide many good paying jobs. And little money left over to feed The Beast.

[appalachiablue]

41. +1 Big issue, the Military/War Budget. How much that $ could help this country is immense-

There was a recent news item about a small town in Texas where locals were yelling how they wanted their PRISON back! Why, b/c it was the main employer there- their only source of livelihood. How sick is that, how our country has so many desperate people, families and communities dependent now on PRISONS and Military Bases and Installations for work and income in order to live.

A huge domestic agenda for improving this country domestically needs to be developed very soon before matters become worse esp. with the 50% irreversible unemployment in the next 20 years that will result from recent advances in computerization, robotics, 3 D printing and driverless vehicles.

The MIT Technology Report has covered this massive change that we are unprepared for based on the work of the Oxford-Martin Center and other research institutions. There's a 15 min, video, "Humans Need Not Apply" from last year that provides a scary but probably fairly realistic view of these changes.

[Sherman A1]

5. K&R!

Bernie

[JDPriestly]

6. Thank you, Bernie Sanders. The voice of reason.

Next time you buy an Apple, Microsoft, Pfizer, GE, Exxon or Chevron product, send your receipt and a copy of this report to the company. Maybe they will realize that people are watching them. Shame on these companies. Their creative talent was born, educated and nurtured in America (for the most part) and this is how they say Thank you.

[appalachiablue]

42. +1 Yes indeed, nurtured here in the USA, like WS banker Lloyd 'I'm Doing God's Work!' Blankfein of

Goldman Sachs brought up by a Manhattan US Postal Service employee father and educated in US schools.

[KansDem]

8. The irony is my friend of 40-plus years renounced his US citizenship last fall...

...because the IRS wanted him to pay taxes on money earned while working and living in a foreign country.

He traveled to Switzerland in 1979 as a street musician and stayed, attending school and eventually teaching music and ESL. He met a woman and they lived together. Then several years ago they wanted to buy a house and applied for a loan. During the loan process, the IRS was notified about his living and working in Switzerland and he was contacted to pay taxes during the years he lived and worked there. The amount was around $100,000. He managed to pay it as a "pre-inheritance" from his parents.

As he explained it to me, the USA is the only country that taxes its citizens living and working abroad. If he had to pay US taxes, how can these US companies make billions and not pay a cent to the IRS?

He underwent the long process of obtaining Swiss citizenship and renounced his American citizen at the US embassy in Bern last year. He was very happy.

[project_bluebook]

10. "renounced his American citizen"

He did the right thing. This third world country will only get worse under Wall Streets rule.

[KansDem]

17. When he told me what he did...

...he said "You'll have to operate GitMo without my assistance."

[DFW]

33. A US citizen is required to file a return wherever they live, even if they pay taxes abroad

We have to pay the difference if the tax in the country of residence is lower than US tax (i.e. Switzerland), but not if the tax in the country of residence is higher tan US tax (this last in theory only--I live in Germany, and just got notice last December that due to incompetence and misreading of the double taxation treaty by the Germans, they want me to pay about 101% of my income, an issue hopefully soon to be resolved!).

My younger daughter now lives and works in Germany, holds dual citizenship. If she lived in the States, a declaration of US residence would be enough to excuse her from filing German taxes. Bur since she lives in Germany, she has to file in both countries, even though she owes no US taxes.

[riverbendviewgal]

35. It costs $2,350 US to renounce US citizenship

It cost Ted Cruz $100 Cdn to renounce Canadian citizenship.

The USA owns its citizens for life. Even those born while foreign parents in the USA were working or going to school. They go back to their parents countries to live when babies or children yet the US government says they must file US taxes for life. Plus they must report all the money they have in their "foreign" banks that are down the street from t hem. It now costs at least $1k to file US taxes each year if you live abroad, even if you owe nothing. Banks around the USA are closing bank accounts of anyone who has American indica unless they can prove they renounced with a Citizen Loss of Nationality paper from the US government.

The USA is Citizen based taxation while the rest of the world, except for Eritrea, is Resident based taxation..

It is so hyprocritical that Corporations are allowed to use resident based taxation but people who are mostly teachers, librarians working average jobs are made to file every year at great expense. US citizens who live abroad have become a pariah in the banking institutions abroad.


Most US citizens never heard of citizen based taxation or resident based taxation. They should.. but then most Americans are not interested in going abroad.

http://mic.com/articles/28780/why-64-of-americans-have-never-left-the-u-s

However, I will accuse Americans of a lack of ambition. According to a 2012 LivingSocial study, three of Americans’ top ten dream destinations are right here in the United States, including Las Vegas and Disney World. Really? Of all the amazing places to go in the world, with seven continents and over 200 countries, we pick Disney World as a dream destination? Let’s dream a little bigger than that.

Mark Twain once said that, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” The planet has never been more interconnected and it scares me a little that 64% of the citizens of the world’s most influential country have never seen any other part of the world. On a less lofty note, international travel is so much fun and it’s tragic that so few in such a rich country have experienced it.

[appalachiablue]

38. Interesting to know this. The 1K per year to file is seriously unfair esp. as corps. are escaping

their responsibility more every year. What a rip off.

[riverbendviewgal]

40. the tax compliance industry Loves Citizen based taxation so much...

The Tax filing is so complicated and requires only e filing for Americans Abroad. To make it worse the IRS has closed all its abroad offices that could help Americans abroad with questions on filing. The 1 800 number for IRS that Homelander Americans have to call IRS if there are tax questions does not work outside of the USA.

In 2010 a new US law was passed where it required EVERY bank in the world to report on Americans who have bank accounts with them on penalty of not reporting was a 30 percent charge to the banks on All US transactions, in and out. Foreign Banks are now so terrified of this that they are kicking off Americans who lived for decades outside of the USA , duals and residents .. Even those Americans now working abroad temporarily are finding it hard to obtain a bank account in the country they are working in

What has happened is that there is now a wall around the USA to KEEP Americans in the country. but most don't want to leave anyway. So the usual refrain to those who do leave is "don't let the door hit you on the backside, and good riddance."


Very Sad.

[project_bluebook]

9. This is why I can never understand

Why so many Americans think this Irish company is an American company. They get so excited when Apple makes a buck even though it does US no good. As far as their overpriced products, well ...

[WillyT]

11. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[ananda]

12. From whom much has been given much is owed.

..

[liberal_at_heart]

13. K&R

[Initech]

14. Tax 200% on every dollar stored in an offshore bank account.

That will stop these thieves cold in their tracks.

[Dont call me Shirley]

15. Pay your taxes, Takers!

[brett_jv]

18. Bu...bu...but ... Black Women, Food Stamps ... CRAB!!! (n/t)

[BlueJazz]

19. Yep...You got it !

[Enthusiast]

24. Single parent households!

[appalachiablue]

20. Bernie knows it. All the good this $ could have done for the deteriorating US. Scofflaws-

[Wilms]

21. k&r n/t

[raven mad]

22. K&R -

saving!

[Enthusiast]

23. These corporations are un-American!

[Cha]

26. Brilliant Topic of conversation.. mahalo Bernie and Play

[scscholar]

27. Why not just padlock their doors and put them out of business?

I forgot. He supports these corporations over the people.

[Cha]

28. Transportation secretary pushes $478 billion highway plan

The Hill
Transportation secretary pushes $478 billion highway plan: http://bit.ly/1xJDAan
11:49 AM - 3 Apr 2015 48 Retweets 15 favorites ✔

http://theobamadiary.com/2015/04/03/a-tweet-or-two-277/

[yodermon]

29. were those profits already taxed by the foreign county? n/t

[corkhead]

30. The republicon Michigan Legislature would rather we vote to raise our sales and gas taxes instead

that way everybody pays, whether you can afford it or not.

Corporations are not people when it comes to paying taxes it seems.

Corporations paying their fair share? That quaint notion is so 20th century.

[appalachiablue]

44. +1. If corps. are people then they pay taxes. What hypocrisy & major scam-

[mountain grammy]

31. K & R

This should be everywhere!

[valerief]

34. And most tax dollars would STILL go to THE WAR DEPARTMENT. Thanks, Bernie, for the info. nt

[Initech]

36. The real criminals in this country - the corporations!

[99Forever]

39. Taxes are for the little people, not important Corporate Persons.

So just shut up and pay up, prols.
































<-----Just in case....