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.
Err... No he didn’t. He made a business decision based on law.
Let’s see... 29% vs. 19% tax rate... Yeah, and he’s a traitor???
NOT!
There is possible legal problems if BK paid 50% more for tomato's if the tomato provider turned out to be my uncle. To pay more taxes voluntarily is not good business practice. I didn't hear a peep when GE paid NO taxes on billions in profits. Buffet works his taxes by making his living off of a top rate of 15% on dividends. When he was crying for more taxes on his money, all he had to do was write a check to the treasury for whatever guilt he felt. To insist everyone else pay more is just BS.
Fixed it for Politico, correcting for grammar and punctuation.
“Warren Buffett Betrays America”
Hahahaha~ So let me get this straight. By helping a company to take advantage of existing law - by acting entirely LEGALLY - to avoid the most oppressive corporate taxes in the developed world, Warren Buffett has betrayed America? What bizzarro world does this person live in?
The author is mocking and satirizing the dummies for their hypocrisy and illogic, just as you have. He isn't the one saying it.
It's my understanding they will still be required to pay 35% on revenues generated from US operations? The only diff is that they will no longer be required to pay the same rate on revenues from other countries. If true, then this whole entire uproar over "inversions" is entirely false.
politico is in full democrat overload today.
buffett is doing what he has always done. Played Obama like a violin.
TRUE dat.
I didn’t realize he had given that much to abortion groups. He is an awful man.
Hard to know who to root for in this sordid drama...a restaurant chain featuring tasteless food, gay pandering and a leftist CEO trying to screw the treasury, or a leftist, double-crossing billionaire trying to screw the rest of us...sort of like an NBA game, can I hope they all lose?
Didn’t Wendy’s buy Tim Horton a decade or so ago?
Kind of a stupid move just to get the corporate tax rate down. Canada’s personal income tax rates are high and they have VAT taxes and worthless socialized medicine that forces many of them to come to the US for medical care.
Go to any hospital in the Buffalo, NY area and the parking lots are full of Canadian license plates.
They probably pay less than 35%. I'm sure they make deductions.
They will also be able to take deductions from the loans they take out while being in Canada. They will also benefit from the Canadian health care system via the costs taken on by the government and such. Government run health care has its advantages!
Arby’s became Wendy’s - no wonder it declined in quality.
A regular Arby’s with curly fries horsey sauce and arbie sauce is the same quality it has always been and still very very good to eat
I meant the Wendy’s declined.
I seldom go to Wendy’s so i can’t comment.
I do go there in the winter to eat chili if I’m on the road
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