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for me was the question placed to Herman Cain about the so-called "tax holiday", the plan being pushed very hard by Republicans to "repatriate" tax free the nearly $2 trillion being held offshore by U.S. companies. Thom Hartmann commented briefly on this question in his show this morning and came to the same conclusion as I: that it was the most telling, significant, and jaw dropping moment that described in a nutshell the Republican approach to the U.S. economy.
The lady questioner (I don't recall her name or the newspaper she represented) described the similar tax holiday during the Bush Administration that was tried in 2004. She asked Herman Cain how it would work to stimulate the economy when the tax free money in 2004 was used by U.S. corporations to merely pay dividends to corporate investors. Cain's response: "It's their money; they should use it any way they want."
I noticed that Cain didn't mention jobs or stimulus. As Thom Hartmann correctly noted, none of the other Republican candidates sharing the podium challenged him on this issue or bothered to chime in, thus ratifying his opinion through their silence. If Cain had had some notion about creating jobs in this country, he might have suggested that the tax free $2 trillion be brought back to the U.S. under certain conditions. After all, U.S. corporations would get a tax free ride, despite the fact that the U.S. taxpayer spends billions of dollars funding the Navy 5th fleet in the Persian Gulf to protect oil company profits or that the Navy patrols the high seas throughout the world to protect international commercial shipping on which those $2 trillion in profits are dependent. If Cain or any of the other Republicans really cared about jobs, they might have suggested that the $2 trillion be brought back tax free on condition that it be placed in sequested accounts to prove to the IRS that it would be used for such things as net new hiring, retraining of the existing workforce, new construction or expansion, retooling of existing factories or facilities, or net new research and development. All those things would both benefit the companies and the American people in general.
But neither Herman Cain nor the other Republicans bothered to comment on the potential use of that money. They therefore wouldn't object to U.S. corporate tax free cash to be used for such things as paying dividends to foreign investors, acquisitions and mergers (which usually involve downsizing and layoffs), CEO bonuses (which they in turn could use for such non-job-productive things as jewelry for their wives, adding to their art collection, or expensive foreign vacations), or (God forbid) hiring more Washington lobbyists or engaging in an orgy of "Citizens United" types of campaign financing. None of those latter activities are very stimulating to the economy. Yet Cain and the other Republicans don't care. They want no conditions placed on that tax free capital.
Thus, according to this way of thinking, even if...
(1) corporate tax rates were dropped to zero
and
(2) restrictions or requirements on corporate behavior were dropped to zero
there still would be no expectation, demand, or even suggestion on the part of the modern Republican Party that corporate earnings be used in any particular job stimulative manner.
They are engaged in magical thinking. It seems that even if those profits go right back overseas to international investors through dividend disbursement, it will still magically trickle down on the U.S. middle class. Either they have deluded themselves into magical thinking or they know how deceitful they are and are just cynically going through the motions to please their corporate masters.
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