Posted on 08/28/2014 6:29:59 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross
It must have been a bitter moment for President Barack Obama when he got the news that his favorite economic guru not only doesn’t like paying taxes but hates America.
Warren Buffett, whose eponymous rule was a staple of Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, is underwriting Burger King’s proposed move to Canada that the left is denouncing as practically the most dastardly plot since the Rosenbergs helped the Soviets get the atomic bomb.
Burger King is acquiring the Canadian coffee and doughnuts chain Tim Hortons in what is called a “corporate inversion.” At least that’s the technical term for it. Obama and the left prefer to call it by names usually reserved for spies and AWOL soldiers before they get a last cigarette and a blindfold.
The practice of corporate inversion, or relocating overseas to avoid the burden of U.S. taxes, offends the president’s sense of “economic patriotism,” as he put it in a speech a few weeks ago. He referred to firms that make this move as “corporate deserters” taking advantage of an “unpatriotic tax loophole.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the socialist from Vermont, says companies like Burger King are betraying America’s veterans, and “have absolutely no loyalty to the people of the United States and our government.” Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, has called for a boycott. Online petitions are targeting the chain for its rank abandonment of the United States.
This outpouring of patriotic fervor is something to behold, especially from the same sort of people who used to think expecting a politician to wear a flag lapel pin was a crudely nationalistic imposition.
The left almost universally scorns the idea that a closely held family business might have religious motivations — and was outraged by the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision for this reason — yet believes that enormous globe-bestriding corporations should have patriotic feelings.
Burger King is owned, by the way, by a Brazilian private equity firm. Its Brazilian patriotism should be in doubt, too, since it showed no sign of sinking into a months-long funk after Germany crushed Brazil in the World Cup semifinal.
In most other contexts, Obama is a proud “citizen of the world.”
Except when it come to taxing businesses. Then, he is transformed into the Giuseppe Garibaldi of American progressivism. For him, patriotism is the last refuge of the taxman.
It should give him and his allies pause that Canada — boring, socialistic Canada — is a tax haven compared to the United States. How did that happen?
We now have a corporate tax system that combines the highest nominal rate in the developed world, at 35 percent, with loopholes that benefit special interests and the politically connected. Two Obama-appointed commissions have suggested major reform. On top of this, the U.S. — in a rarity for the developed world — imposes its tax rate on overseas earnings.
The 'proud citizens of the world' turn into crude spittle-flecked nativists to demand that captive corporations, whom they regularly slander and scorn, wear their pledge pin and pay their jizya.
Only Democrats are allowed to avoid taxes.
Sadly our financial elite would betray this country in a heartbeat if it increased the size of their bank accounts.
Though Buffett’s one-man blockade of the Keystone Pipeline is a much bigger betrayal than this Burger King move.
Every citizen has the duty to pay the taxes she owes.
And to owe as little as possible.
Loving America does NOT mean loving government.
Congress betrays America. Everyday.
Hey Politico, try taking an Econ 101 course.
In order to allow you a slim chance of passing, do it at your local Community College first.
Warning, it has ......math.
(Not hard math, but since you folks are progressives, the simple stuff will still present problems.)
Go look at the top twenty-five companies in America, and start pondering what would happen if just three of them moved out...to Mexico or Canada...or even Ireland. A wave would start, and both parties would be forced into a corner and have to admit that the tax structure we have here....is screwed up.
Stephen Moore nukes MSNBC Chris Hayes on rich liberals wanting to pay higher taxes (7/8/12)
Buffett fails in this respect; owing about $1 billion in back taxes.
Bill & Hillary Clinton used to write off the underwear they donated. Did they lack “economic patriotism?”
All true, but it's not the point. Buffet has enabled a man and a party what wants conservatives to pay as much as possible. He's enabled a party that raises money off of the issue of off shoring. Buffet is supporting a party that wants us to think the Koch Brothers are the devil incarnate. Buffet is practicing exactly what his party preaches against.
Buffett betrayed America when he supported Obama.
Truth is that I believe the man lost his soul long ago.
I hate to break it to you, but the Comm Colleges are teaching a lot more about real economics than “big education” and it’s liberal establishment is.
The Ivy League teaches pure bullsh-t - but sadly, people still hold them in reverence and the Ivy’s in power only hire other Ivys. Self perpetuating poison ivy on our nation.
I’m curious how either Buffet or Burger King have betrayed America. It’s my understanding that, no matter WHERE they are headquartered, they (and the many other companies being demonized for this) continue to pay the 35% tax rate for income accrued in the US. So, it seems this is all a big fraud, this whole ‘unpatriotic’ argument?
Yep. You are stating the obvious, but most of the sheeple are too dumb to make the connection.
Which one?
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