The same Republican leaders who decry any mention of amnesty for undocumented immigrants are more than ready to grant amnesty to corporate tax dodgers.
Soon after winning control of both houses of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner threatened President Obama with all-out war if he dares issue an executive order on immigration, which he is now vowing to do by the end of the year.
It 'would be like waving a red flag in front of a bull,' McConnell said.
Tough words from a leadership that refused to allow a vote on immigration reform in the House for the past two years.
Obama is expected to order a suspension of mass deportations for several million undocumented who have been in the country for years and have committed no crimes.
That order, the President acknowledged in a press conference Wednesday, will only be temporary until Congress acts on long-stalled comprehensive immigration reform.
But it will end much of the tragic dislocation and breakup of immigrant families that is occurring each day through federal deportation efforts, and it may actually spur passage of a final immigration bill.
'The excuses and delays for inaction on immigration are over,' U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said after Election Day.
Gutierrez and other Latino leaders say they have waited long enough for the President to make good on a promise he made them when he ran for office in 2008.
They note he postponed executive action till after Election Day - and Democrats still lost control of the Senate.
It's time, they say, for Obama to call the question, to force a national debate on immigration. It's time, as well, for those hoping to replace Obama in the White House to say where they stand.
'For us, the election of 2016 starts today,' said Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota.
Their words may not resonate with the leadership of Congress, who loathe any mention of immigration amnesty. Amazingly, you may not have heard much about that other amnesty that they strongly prefer.
But it is at the top of the secret wish list for giant corporations like General Electric, Apple, Microsoft and Pfizer.
Over the past decade, multinational companies have funneled more than $2 trillion in profits out of the U.S. and parked it overseas.
Much of it is labeled 'deferred taxes' and invested to make more money. They keep it overseas to evade paying our 35% federal corporate tax. Meanwhile, they're lobbying fiercely in Washington for a huge one-year tax reduction to only 5% before they'll agree to repatriate their money.
McConnell and Boehner have already declared that tax amnesty is a priority for the Republicans.
The last time the federal government granted such a bonanza was in 2004 under President George W. Bush.
Pfizer alone saved $11 billion with it, then turned around and reduced its workforce by more than 40,000, according to David Cay Johnston, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who routinely exposes corporate tax abuses.
So Obama and the Democrats should welcome the debate over what's more important: finally fixing our broken immigration system and granting some temporary peace to immigrant workers, or slipping in a new amnesty for tax dodging corporations.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, November 6, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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