Kerry: Close Corporate Loopholes To Pay For Middle-Class Tax Cut

[DrFunkenstein]

In front of a closed MCI Worldcom office in Iowa, Kerry promised to repeal the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans but he believes that we should keep the middle class tax cuts that Democrats fought for in 2001 and 2003. He strongly disagrees with Democrats who want to repeal these tax cuts, which would cost many middle-class families with two children nearly $2,000.

<>

John Kerry said, “I believe we should repeal President Bush’s special tax breaks that go to the wealthiest Americans. I believe we should end corporate welfare as we know it and tax giveaways to special interests. But I do not believe we should abolish tax cuts for middle class families – whether it’s the child tax credit or the elimination of the marriage penalty. In fact, I believe we should give middle class families a tax cut, not a tax increase. We can cut corporate tax loopholes to pay for middle class tax cuts.”

“Putting real money into the pockets of the hard working middle class is true to our principles as Democrats – and right for the American economy. Dishonest companies won’t be allowed to dodge their taxes through shady practices. And in a Kerry Administration, companies like WorldCom certainly won’t be rewarded with government contracts. We need to return to the basic American principles that have always built our economic future,” said Kerry.

WorldCom and other corporate scandals have made life more difficult for middle-class families. Because of WorldCom’s mismanagement and the corruption of its executives, Americans have lost jobs, lost savings, lost hope. Iowans lost more than $2 billion in their 401K’s from the corruption at WorldCom and other such scandal-ridden corporations.

But despite WorldCom’s status as a corporate criminal, the Bush Administration has been tripping over itself to provide the company more government contracts. WorldCom received $122 million in contracts in 2000 when George Bush was elected – to $772 million today. That’s an increase of more than 600 percent.

<>

As President, Kerry will crack down on dishonest companies and close corporate tax loopholes in order to pay for tax relief to the middle class.

John Kerry will fund strong budgets and assure strong enforcement by the SEC. He believes that American companies should not be allowed to set up virtual headquarters in foreign countries that are hardly more than mailboxes just to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

A recent Joint Committee on Taxation report found that Enron claimed a $2.3 billion in profit between 1996 and 1999 in reports to its investors, while reporting a $3 billion tax loss to the IRS. John Kerry believes corporations should have to account these kinds of disparities.

The Federal government should not give lucrative contracts to companies that have a record of accounting fraud – like WorldCom – or are moving offshore.

Executives should not be walking away with millions of dollars in salaries and benefits while their workers are laid off their companies are defaulting on loans. Kerry would tighten the laws that allow corporations to take advantage of tax deductions for performance based executive pay – even when executives do nothing to improve productivity.

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http://www.blog.johnkerry.com/blog/archives/000212.html#more

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. It's rude to point.

[molly]

2. Talk to the finger

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Or, pull it?

[blm]

5. wa, wa, wa, waaaaa..........

.

[DrFunkenstein]

4. A Fortune Teller Told Me I Had "The Finger of God"

She explained that it meant I was artistic.

I was really hoping it would be something a little sexier.

[XanaDUer]

8. LOL!

Good one, Molly.

[renie408]

6. Ummm...Edwards

Isn't this the stuff that Edwards has been saying forever? This isn't exactly some stunning new idea Kerry has suddenly had.

[blm]

7. He's been speaking to it since last Dec.

It was in his Cleveland economic speech. But, you wouldn't know ANY of them were speaking about these issues from the media.

[DrFunkenstein]

9. The Media Has No Interest In Boring Old Policies

They'd rather gaze at the polls like politics has nothing to do with people's lives. No wonder no one is interested in politics, and thinks the government is full of crap (which works out great for the GOP).

[w4rma]

10. The media won't talk about these issues, because the owners of big media

profit handsomely from these loopholes.

If you Kerry folks would focus on more things like this (This is an awesome topic, but he has to do a run around the media for this specific topic, though) which the media *will* report on, instead of smears on Dean, Kerry might be doing better in the primaries.

[blm]

11. We did for months and got "Bushlite"

thrown at us. And S&B, and Republicanlite, and pink tutu, and......

[w4rma]

14. Please, quit making up excuses to justify smearing other candidates, blm

*If* you want the bickering to stop, you need to look in the mirror, IMHO.

[blm]

21. I don't smear the candidates.

Posting their actions and words in the political arena is not smearing. I lay off his personal life and that of his family and make no reference to his physical features or repeat any lies and smears against them.

And, of course you are really only talking about Dean because that is your guy. I never post ill feelings towards the other candidates because they have been civil opponents who are not benefitting from misrepresentations.

[MercutioATC]

30. To react this way to a neutral Kerry post that's drawn NO fire from Dean

supporters is inflammatory. You complain that Dean supporters are the agressors and then you bait them by starting an anti-Dean thread inside a neutral Kerry thread. This is YOUR issue, not theirs.

[blm]

31. It was appropriate reply to the specific post in #10.

"If you Kerry folks would focus on more things like this (This is an awesome topic, but he has to do a run around the media for this specific topic, though) which the media *will* report on, instead of smears on Dean, Kerry might be doing better in the primaries."

From your perspective I had no right to respond to this?

[renie408]

32. Awww, man...

things were going so nice....

[DrFunkenstein]

16. I Always Post The Disappearing Pro-Kerry Posts

It is just that people would rather comment on the BS. I LOVE talking policy. That's why I wanted Dean and Kerry to debate - not so they could squabble, but so that policy could actually get discussed. The one-minute thing is ridiculous. Even if it is not one on one, something needs to be changed about the debate format.

[sandnsea]

24. Last Dec???

1995, when McCain and Kerry first teamed up to get rid of billions of dollars in corporate welfare. He fought for the tax haven legislation in 2002. He's fought corporate contract bundling which cuts out small business, fought for women's small business assistance, and has been on the Small Business Committee for a long time. He's been fighting on all these issues for a really long time.

[blm]

25. LOL...I meant during this campaign. I know

he's been speaking about the issue for many years. But thanks for the reminder.

[sandnsea]

27. Just adding

the more the merrier and all!!

[Fabio]

29. No offense

I like John Edwards, and admire the fact that he did not spend PAC or soft money during his senate campaign. I think it is a critical underpinning to the legitimacy of any candidate who claims to be a progressive and talk about reform among businesses. Kudos for John Edwards.

My guy, John Kerry, has also never used PAC/soft money in any of his four senate campaigns (the only member of the senate with that distinction), and has been speaking about corporate reform for a long period of time. Most recently, JK broke ranks with a group of his most ardent supporters -- the Northern California hi tech community -- to advocate the expensing of stock options (one of the tools of finance that has been badly misused by CEOs inflating their pay and managing their corporations for the short term). Lieberman and Gephardt have refused to back similar legislation; I cant speak to Edwards position. However, JK has clearly been against corporate welfare and bad business practices for a long time.

[renie408]

33. None taken

I hadn't heard anything about Kerry discussing these things much here or anywhere else and I am a real political newbie. I have been reading the Edwards' website for months and being from NC, I hear a lot of what he has to say. He has been talking pretty specifically about loopholes, etc, for what seems to me to be a long time.

edited to add: And any time I can stick Edwards name in somewhere, I jump on it!!

[DemDogs]

38. Edwards did it the day before Kerry

Edwards criticized the expensing of options. Then Microsoft did, too. Then Kerry, did. But regardless of the fact that that is the order, they are all right. The rest should join in.

[Fabio]

43. I am aware of JKs decision making process

on the expensing of options (though not Sen Edwards)..JK has advocated this mood for some time (mostly privately), but only recently announced it. It's one of the places I most disagree with Lieberman and Gephardt -- there may be better solutions than outright full expensing of all employee stock options for all equity -- but not doing anything is a failure to address a major problem in our country - won that has economic and socioeconomic ramifications (because CEO make such a disproporiate amount with assuming downside risk in compensation).

I'd prefer companies, at the executive level, received compensation in the form of outright stock grants, while rank and file employees could still participate in stock options. In such a situation, I am not certain they even would need to be expensed.

Anyhow, my two cents.

[Larkspur]

12. Will Kerry give this single and childfree middle class voter a tax cut

because I didn't get one.

Repeal the Bush tax cuts! Paul Krugman said that it would be a start to closing the deficit hole, but not the whole solution.

[dsc]

13. Thank you

be prepared for flaming for the "your childfree and thus unworthy crowd" but I do get awfully tired of being so marginalized that we literally don't even get counted anymore. All of these 'average' breaks exclude us from the calculations. I got a paltry $300 back in 01 and that was it.

[DrFunkenstein]

15. Kerry Doesn't Pretend It Is The Whole Solution

He has TONS of ideas for creating a truly business-friendly environment. He proposes tax credits for job creation and company re-investment, not just Bush giveaways. He is especially good with small businesses (he is the ranking member on the Small Business Committee), and giving them fair breaks and a chance to get ahead.

He is not anti-business, but he is completely against corporate welfare and malfeasance. He despises the Golden Parachute creed that dominated Bush's tenure (and Clinton's unfortunately).

The single most important issue with the recession - that Bush never mentions, of course - is the complete lack of trust between investors and the corporations because of all the book-cooking. Kerry not only supports a strong SEC, he also favors a stringent and absolutely independent Accounting Oversight Commission.

We must regain the trust of investors if the market is going to turn around.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Tons and tons.

[DrFunkenstein]

20. I Got You Covered

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[AP]

18. No. Krugman said some progressivity in tax code would be good.

http://www.liberaloasis.com/krugman.htm

PK: Put it this way. If you do the arithmetic, take the estimates of where we are on budget,
we’re actually very deep in the hole.

The best estimates say we got a fundamental shortfall of about 4.5 or 4.6 percent of GDP. The
Bush tax cuts are actually about 2.7 percent of GDP.

So the truth is, even if we rolled them all back, we would still have a hole in the budget.

If you wanted to…keep the tax cuts for the middle-class, there’s something to be said for .
Our tax system has gotten a lot less progressive over the past 20 years.

[DrFunkenstein]

22. Cutting Down The Deficit, But Doing It Right

Cut the Deficit in Half: John Kerry is committed to balancing the budget. He has put forward a sensible plan that will at least cut the deficit in half in his first term, while investing in economic growth and investing in workers.

A Balanced Budget Summit: The best way to get to a balanced budget is not in partisan bickering, but in bipartisan cooperation. As President, John Kerry will call a Balanced Budget Summit that will require all sides to work together to make at least temporary sacrifices -- even in their top priorities -- as part of a concerted effort to restore fiscal discipline and fight for our future.

Restore Budget Rules to Stop Runaway Spending. John Kerry believes we need to reverse the new budget rules Republicans in Congress have established that make it easier to spend into deficits with fewer votes. He will also review and reassess all discretionary spending programs to determine their effectiveness and whether they should continue to be funded.

Implement the McCain-Kerry Commission on Corporate Welfare. Powerful special interest groups make it hard to cut special tax loopholes and pork barrel spending projects. John Kerry supports a Commission that would recommend cuts and require Congress to vote on all recommendations, so no single special interest could fight for pet projects.

Pass a Constitutional Line-Item Veto to Reduce Corporate Welfare and Excessive Spending. Under Kerry’s plan, the President would identify wasteful spending items in the budget and submit the list to Congress to vote on in an up-or-down fashion – saving billions of dollars.

[DrFunkenstein]

23. Forgot To Mention That He Would Reduce Health Care Subsidies

Control Rising Health Care Costs so Our Industries Can Compete. Businesses cannot compete if they are weighed down by health care costs, especially since the health care costs of our industrial competitors are often subsidized by government. It costs U.S. automakers $1,000 per car just to cover health care costs for employees. John Kerry’s plan controls rising health care costs by helping pay for catastrophic care cases.

There's alot more to this plan, and his health care speech is filled with all kinds of brilliant ways he would reduce spending.

[AP]

19. Although I think the married people have fewer burdens than singles

I think people with children deserve tax breaks that singles don't get.

Even if you don't have kids, you have to admit that someone elses kids are going to be paying into the system which pays your social security some day, and even when you're old you're going to benefit from educated, happy children growing up to make positive contributions to society.

If I didn't have children I'd still want people with children to get a break. It's better for me in the long run.

[dsc]

34. It has gone way overboard

I don't mind people with kids getting tax breaks. But I do mind, a heck of a lot, paying more in taxes (by dollars not %) with a below 20k income than a family of 4 is paying with a high 40k income. Even for a family of four 40k is pretty decent around here. I pay well over half of what that family does for housing, utilities, and transportation. I also pay well over one fourth of what they do for things like food. I don't consider myself anti family or greedy but it is quite unfair to expect poor singles to pay more in taxes (again $ not %) than middle class families. Currently we are.

[DrFunkenstein]

35. You Are Anti-Family And Greedy

Nah, just kidding. I'm a little lost on your translation of $ and %. Are you talking about splitting the family numbers 4 ways?

My other question is whether any of the candidates are addressing your dilemma.

Maybe I'm just too tired to understand, but I'd really like to know what you think on this issue.

[DemDogs]

39. Edwards would reduce your taxes

For buying a home, a tax credit.
For investment, a generous amount is non-taxable if you are middle class.

[sandnsea]

26. Probably not

But you're not getting one with Dean either and at least Kerry is going to put the needs of the people first which will help improve the economy quicker so you'll have a little more peace of mind. He's been on the Small Business Committee for years so he already knows what we have, what works and what needs improving to help those people who create most of the jobs anyway. No learning curve, just someone who already knows how it's done and how we can move forward the fastest.

[DrFunkenstein]

36. People Should Know About His Chairing The Small Business Committee

He may be ranking member now in the minority party, but I still find this very impressive.

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[DrFunkenstein]

28. Kerry Is Also No Stranger To Cutting Military Pork

Kucinich fans check this out! While Kerry remains squarely behind paying the personnel a fair wage and giving veterans their due, Kerry has a long, long, long history of trimming the bloated Defense Budget.

See what the GOP thinks of that:

http://www.gop.com/newsroom/rncresearch/research071803.htm

I love when they do my homework for me!

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[blm]

37. What a great idea...

deserves to be heard over all the horserace hoopla.

[Mairead]

40. I'd like to hear more detail about his 'end corporate welfare'

[blm]

41. He wants to end taxbreaks to companies

that use offshore addresses to sneak out of paying more taxes. Like Halliburton. And no govt. contracts to any company that is listed offshore. It's in his announcement speech.

www.johnkerry.com

[Mairead]

42. That's not quite the same thing, B

There's hundreds of billions (the Boston Globe documented over $150G per year years ago) in corporate welfare that goes to US-based companies every year--monies that should be provided by shareholders, not us. I was hoping he was talking about ending that.

[blm]

44. Well, from what I have read and heard,

he seems to be on the right path.

[Fabio]

45. He is talking about that

look up the McCain-Kerry Corporate Welfare Commission (which is being blocked by members of congress). Its sole charge is to evaluate areas where corporate welfare is and to try to eliminate it.

Here is some old history on the stuff
http://www.agiweb.org/gap/hearings/corpsub.html
Here too.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/gen/resources/pork/corporate.welfare/


More from a biography.
1993, Senator Kerry voted for the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, the largest and most specific deficit reduction plan ever enacted. In l994, John Kerry introduced legislation to make $85 billion in specific program budget cuts over five years, and also led a group of five Senators in sponsoring another package to cut $43 billion from the deficit over the same time period. In 1995, Senator Kerry built on his deficit reduction record by authoring The Responsible Deficit Reduction Act -- which proposed to cut unnecessary and wasteful government spending by more than $90 billion. In addition, he fought alongside Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to reduce more than $60 billion in wasteful "corporate welfare" from the federal budget. Most recently, John Kerry has supported two plans which balance the budget by the year 2002.

http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/vn1/wwwhbjke.html


Obviously, corporate welfare refore isn't too high up on the agenda in the GOP congress, so not too much has happened on it recently. I have faith that would change in a JK whitehouse.

[DrFunkenstein]

47. Thanks For Those Fantastic Links!

The more you find out about Kerry, the more impressive he becomes in stature. Even more than his experience on the battlefield, the battles he's chosen in the Senate are so inspiring. Not only that he refused to accept PAC's, that he has a record against wasteful spending (including the bloated Defense budget) to get more resources to things that matter - health care, education, small business.

How many people know that he is the ranking Dem on the Small Business Committee? That he has been fighting for years to help the little guy over the megacorporations? That he has fought hard to get more minority and women-run businesses started?

That's the kind of thing you don't see in thumbnail bios, but it's exactly the kind of thing I stumble across all the time that makes me think Kerry is the best thing to come down the pike in our time. I think to myself, "This guy could seriously change the course of the 21st century."

Kerry is a driven man. If you go back and look at his investigations of Iran-Contra, BCCI, Noriega, Ollie North, you can't help but think that he has the drive to clean up corporate welfare, clean up our health care system, clean up NAFTA, take on Big Oil, take on Big Tobacco, take on Big Media, take on Big Agribusiness.

Against Goliath, Kerry is David's sling.

<>

[sandnsea]

46. He's doing work on that

"Special interest subsidies and tax breaks will cost about a hundred fifty billion dollars this year. They also cost us jobs by narrowing opportunities for new entrepreneurs and small businesses. They close off open markets and slow economic growth. As President, I will end corporate welfare as we know it.

Each and every special interest provision in those 17,000 pages has a defender. That’s why John McCain and I have co-sponsored legislation for a Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission to recommend cuts and submit them to Congress for an up or down vote – with no amendments. As President, I will sign this into law."

There's more on his economic plan. The corporate tax info is a little after the middle. I know I read that he and McCain introduced two bills, but I can't find it now. But he's actually been working on it for a long time, this isn't campaign trail talk.


http://www.johnkerry.com/news/speeches/spc_2003_0828.html

[DrFunkenstein]

48. This Is Not Campaign Trail Talk

Couldn't agree more. Kerry's not dipping his toe into the pool. He did a swan dive long ago. He feels passionately that the government can actually enoble us as a nation, if we could just get rid of all the BS pork and get the revenues to the things that really matter.

Kerry transformed that passion into action ever since he refused to be compromised by soft-money contributors. But Kerry is not just a idealist. He has tried to make in-roads with centrists and across party lines to make his ideas into reality. Good intentions only get you so far. Nader had some great ideas, but would never in a million years been able to implement them because he is a polarizer. Kerry builds bridges rather than burn them.

[Mairead]

49. That's very nice, then!

Perhaps you guys can persuade him to get a publicist or something?

I can't quite remember where this comes from...I read about it years ago...but a group met with a political officeholder to try to get a certain good thing passed. They were just getting into their spiel when the officholder held up his hand, smiled, and said 'You convinced me. Now get out there and put pressure on me.' The point being that he could safely go against the money interests only if he could point to powerful popular interests.

Kerry seems ineffectual. Could that be because nobody knows what's going on?

[George_Bonanza]

50. You're right

Kerry can go toe to toe with uber-consumerists like Nader, but people just don't know it. Kerry may not be perfect, and you could throw NAFTA in his face if you really hate that agreement, but then again, I can just as easily dig up dirt on Nader as well, about his riches and investments in Cisco and all. Fact is, nobody's perfect. Fact is, Kerry chairs the SBC, has gone after international financial criminals like BCCI (still not clear on what that is though) and has written books like the New War, which deals with that sort of stuff. I know it. You know it. But the rest don't. Kerry can easily snag the Green crowd, looking for a candidate who leads their causes but still maintains a wide audience. Kerry is that man.

[blm]

54. This is why the media doesn't let him break through, Mairead...

his message is too dangerous to the status quo. You'll never see them allow Kerry the time to focus his intentions and longtime plans. He is too attractive a package if he is heard.

That's why he is much like Kucinich in my book. They are not there to ENTERTAIN. They are there to make some serious changes.

[burr]

51. closing loopholes is a great idea!!!

Kerry just needs to dump this idea that half a poison pill is better than all. This is what shrub's taxcuts are...a poison pill to future generations, a poison pill to our Social Security system, a poison pill for public education along with needed social programs, and a poison pill to our nation's long-term security needs.

It will ultimately take more than a complete repeal shrub's taxcuts to reduce the deficit, to fully fund Kerry's healthcare program, and prevent further theft from the Social Security fund for political reasons. And this plan, in addition to ditching this need to keep any of shrub's murderous taxcuts, would put Kerry on the path of victory in 2004! :thumbsup:

[stickdog]

52. I'm going to get rid of all taxes on anyone earning under $50,000

with an additional $10,000 for each kid.

I'm going to make up for the shortfall by spending a lot more money on social programs and national security.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

[blm]

53. Debate bump...

current debate topic.