Michell Bachmann on Meet the Press starts the meme

[Skip_In_Boulder]

That if we raise taxes on corporations they will leave the country. I fully expected this meme to be started up again and it will be one of the main mantras for the upcoming election. As far as I am concerned corporations who don't want to pay their fair share to support the country they reside in, good riddance.

When you don't have ideas, spreed fear.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Oh, my! If they leave the country, they might take the jobs with them!

Ho-hum.

They should leave the country under threat of a good tar and feathering.

[Doctor_J]

16. If they're not paying taxes, and not hiring Americans, who cares if they leave?

:shrug:

[spanone]

21. but, but, but, there are no jobs.....can't have it both ways michy

[Mz Pip]

2. Many of them already have

and they are still getting their tax breaks. What does she think about that?

[Supersedeas]

14. the American middle class is the consumer and tax payer of last resort for everyone

[KT2000]

3. If they leave,

will they call upon the US to go to war for them? Would the US send it forces to protect foreign corporations?
Powerful corporations depend on the US military to keep their enterprsies secure.
Guess she is not thinking of that.

[Yavin4]

17. Hey, Corp. America! Good Luck Dealing with the Chinese Govt when They Nationalize Your Assets

and seize your intellectual property. Good luck dealing with them on your own.

[KT2000]

19. good point

they did it before and they will do it again. I guess it is hard to learn history when there is nothing but $$$$ for eyes.

[Yavin4]

20. Wait Until They Try To Re-Locate The Chinese Factories for Even Cheaper Labor in Vietnam

I suspect that the Chinese won't stand idly by as millions of jobs leave their country.

[derby378]

4. Because this never, I repeat, NEVER goes out-of-date...

http://www.thecorporation.com

[immoderate]

26. That's marvelous.

How did I not know?

Thanks!

--imm :hi:

[annabanana]

5. Good riddance. They COST more than they're worth. The jobs

aren't here and they want OUR military to protect their "American interests" on our dime to the tune of billions. I say let them go.

[waking wisconsin]

6. They already left dipshit, remember the free trade agreements...

we have had tariffs for a reason since the American revolution.

I can't understand how with all the talk about jobs, corporations and taxes...the corporate media and the American people fail to discuss the Free trade agreements that sent our jobs overseas. How can anyone leave this out of the discussion?


How much revenue did we use to get from tariffs before the 'free' trade agreements? I wonder...could that possibly affect the economy?


Now that the Chinese and Indian people have all our jobs....they don't seem to want to pay income tax to the US either....so that is more lost revenue, and now we have to pay Goldman Sachs to give out food stamps, which they then outsourced those jobs to India. I wonder....if this could possibly affect the economy??

[Wounded Bear]

7. How about we reverse that meme.....

If they don't start hiring people, we will revoke their charters.

;)

[Skip_In_Boulder]

8. I like it!!!!! n/t

[TlalocW]

9. Hell, the latest to leave

The X-ray division of GE (a company who paid little or no federal tax) is moving its headquarters from America to China because China just passed a single-payer health care system, which is making its economy boom. We gave them what they wanted, and they're still leaving and leaving for something repubs said couldn't happen. There's a two-fer for ya.

TlalocW

[McCamy Taylor]

10. I wish the DOD contractors would leave. Then we could cut the Pentagon budget.

[DirkGently]

11. ... aaand new corporations would replace them. Atlas Sucked.

[Necronomiconomics]

12. NAFTA

They already left the country.

[Blue Owl]

13. What, Bachmann was on Pass the Meat?

n/t

[Doctor_J]

15. We have the lowest corporate taxes in the world

so this is a lie

[Dappleganger]

18. Don't let the door hit them on the way out!!

[soupkitchen]

22. Any corporatiton that leaves can't sell products or services in US

End of threat.

[Myrina]

23. Hey, if they leave they can outsource jobs back here!

:spank:

[thereismore]

24. Why don't she just say it: Corporations should pay 0 taxes. nt

[WinkyDink]

25. They already did.

[JohnnyRingo]

27. Then we hit them with import tariffs.

Canada has it right. As I understand it, if you don't build it there, you don't sell it there. Of course, companies don't have to make everything they sell in the country but they have to maintain a Canadian workforce.

All those car plants north of the Great Lakes aren't there to save on air conditioning costs, and there's a reason Zippo has it's only other factory outside of Bradford PA in Niagara Falls.

Why don't we have that rule. At least if someone wants to sell goods here, they can only dodge tariffs if they build a percentage here. That includes American companies too, and it won't cost us a dime.

[treestar]

28. Nothing new about this going Galt meme

Just not using that word does not make it not the same thing.

What a threat!

If they take the jobs, we don't buy the crap. That's all.

See if they can sell it to the people who make it abroad.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

29. And the theme was taken up by 60 Minutes last night

I don't know if anyone else saw the story on U.S. corporations using tax havens abroad by Leslie Stahl. They reported on the fact that some corporations have thousands of workers in the U.S. but have their official headquarters in virtually unmanned mail drops in countries like Switzerland and only pay the Swiss corporate tax rate of 16%. But then 60 Minutes turned the story completely around, interviewing executives who stated that the only reason these corporations are dodging U.S. taxes is because the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world next to Japan. The executives also stated that this high rate is driving U.S. corporations to move their entire headquarters abroad.

However, if they were truly interested in facts, 60 Minutes would have mentioned the fact that the ACTUAL rate at which the average American corporation in paying taxes in this country (because of loopholes) is at 16%, the same rate as the official Swiss corporate tax rate and one of the world's lowest rates.

[raouldukelives]

30. So what's the bad news? nt

[Lone_Star_Dem]

31. Does she mean like Haliburton, Weatherford International, Tyco International, Foster Wheeler and ..

Transocean International? Just to name a few off the top of my head.

:mad:

[Lex]

32. Let them LEAVE. They are sucking the country dry.

They are certainly not irreplaceable.

[bemildred]

33. Good, let them go, kick their asses on the way out, we can make our own jobs. nt

[Lex]

36. Small businesses create the most jobs in the country anyway.

And the big corporations sure aren't paying their fair share of taxes. If their shareholders and board members don't like it here, if they have no feeling for this country other than sucking its assets dry, then please DO GO.

[RT Atlanta]

34. UNPATRIOTIC - just like republicans

if that act should ever come to pass, and I hope they would be branded as such.

THis is a little dated, but it gets the point across:

[sufrommich]

35. Let them leave. Imagine how many entrepreneurs would love

to fill the vacuum left behind.

[Lex]

37. Exactly. nt

[DearAbby]

38. Would a corporation leaving the country

have any effect - the tree in the forest falling yada yada yada.

[jmowreader]

39. Corporations don't go Galt because of taxes...

especially since the United States has a very low effective corporate tax rate. (Attention Michelle: if you can't turn $1000 of gross corporate income into $1 of taxable corporate income, you're just not trying.)

Corporations go Galt largely because of environmental and safety regulations, and worker costs.

From taxrates.cc, we find that China's top corporate tax rate (on taxable income over 50,000 renminbi per year) is 35 percent--the same as our rate, and that doesn't take much because the exchange rate is around 6.3 RMB to 1 dollar. China is desirable as a business destination not because it has low taxes, but because the working conditions there now look a LOT like the ones at Durham's in "The Jungle."