LAWYER JOE BIDEN AND THE GAMER LAWYER INFESTED DEMOCRAT PARTY'S FIRST PRIORITY IS TO PROTECT THE RICH AND CORPORATE CRIMINALS ON WALL STREET.
THERE IS A REASON WHY JOE BIDEN GOT MORE CAMPAIGN MONEY FROM BIG BUSINESS AND BANKSTERS THAN EVEN THE REPUBLICAN ORANGE BABOON TRUMPER!
VIDEO
Ralph Nader: Biden's First Year Proves He Is Still a "Corporate Socialist" Beholden to Big Business
Democrats' new campaign slogan: 'A bigger IRS is a better IRS'
Democrats got a twofer with the cave-in of Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on their badly misnamed "Inflation Reduction Act" of 2022, paving the way for the $700 billion bill's passage in Congress -- the joy of taxing, and the joy of spending.
Now they are hailing this as some kind of achievement, something that could save their bacon come the November midterms, or else trash the economy enough as Republicans take over to make voters cry out for the Democrats' return.
The crowing for this disastrous bill, badly misnamed as the "Inflation Reduction Act," is incredible.
"It will reduce inflation. It will lower prescription drug costs. It will fight climate change. It will close tax loopholes and it will reduce and reduce the deficit," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, said of the package. "It will help every citizen in this country and make America a much better place."
Which is entirely garbage.
Half the nightmare bill, some $369 billion, will be dedicated to green new deal boondoggles, subsidies for the rich, and crony shovel-outs of the kind that brought us Solyndra.
Concerned that EVs are too expensive? The Inflation Reduction Act would lower their cost, so that more Americans can choose to go electric and save money on maintenance and fuel. pic.twitter.com/WS0HPVN0uY
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) August 6, 2022
The other half, some $300 billion, will be dedicated to IRS enforcement, surveillance upgrades, and audits against small businesses, who have now been re-labeled "the rich."
Sinema got her demand to not close the carried interest tax loophole which is what her hedge fund donors wanted. Democrats replaced that with a provision to tax businesses even more. Imported oil will get new taxes, too. But not to support increased domestic production. Look forward to higher prices at the pump.
The Washington Post, though, is leading the cheers, with this incredible headline:
Democrats’ $80 billion wager: A bigger IRS will be a better IRS
What?
It gets worse when you read further:
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig wrote to lawmakers on Thursday that his agency was committed to upping enforcement “in areas of challenge for the agency — large corporate and global high-net-worth taxpayers.” He added, “These resources are absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans.”
Oh, what piffle. There's not a word in that bill about who can get targeted -- the IRS, money in hand. can target any taxpayer they like, quite unlike the Department of Homeland Security which "prioritizes" only certain illegal aliens for enforcement action and not others. The Post notes that Biden is going to get rid of Rettig, a Trump appointee, soon, and appoint a leftist. This will be a guy who will lie like Alejandro Mayorkas, or else go naked in his advocacy of an IRS enforcer behind every small business.
The IRS makes most of its money going after small business owners who don't have the money to defend themselves with lawyers and specially carved out loopholes -- it gets a $10 per $1 spent return according to the Post.
The result is that the IRS’s prolific enforcement capabilities — which bring in on average better than $10 in revenue for every $1 spent pursuing audits — are often trained on the most economically vulnerable taxpayers.
More than half of the agency’s audits in 2021 were directed at taxpayers with incomes less than $75,000, according to IRS data.
Those little guys, by the way, according to one chart (coming soon) disproportionately target Latino taxpayers in the Southwest, places like the Texas borderlands corridors and southern Arizona, while completely ignoring the northeast as if nobody would dream of cheating on taxes in some place like New York.
Understand why those places are suddenly turning bright red? Understand why Sinema and all the other Democrat cavers in that region are beyond stupid, targeting their own voters?
Meanwhile, the IRS expects to claw back less than half of that from its newly targeted wealthier taxpayers.
The Post reports the IRS expects a much lower return on all those "rich" people they claim they are going to audit with those 87,000 new agents, which is an eightfold increase in their budget, with $4.50 gained for all those federal dollars "invested." That's way less than the $10 per $1 they are making now with the little guy taxpayers. Yet still, somehow, we are supposed to believe that once they have the congressionally appropriated money, that they will only target "the rich."
With 87,000 newly minted agents, and all of them under pressure from their bosses to "produce" for the government, who are they going to go for? Where is the money at, as a famous bank robber once put it? When you're shooting fish in a barrel, and the target can't fight back, and you have all the power to dictate who's a bad guy and show their new bosses how wonderful they are at bringing home the bacon, who are the newly minted IRS agent going to target? The Wall Street Journal's persuasive editorial titled "The IRS is About to Go Beast Mode" pretty well tells us what's in store with this horrendous bill.
Democrats, though, are still touting it, and likely for the most cynical of reasons.
They know they are going to be thrown out of office come November. They also know that the GOP is spineless and they expect it to be spineless by not repealing this bill the minute it gets a chance to. The GOP, like they themselves, are as addicted to government spending as the Democrats are. So the bill will stay in place. Meanwhile, the bill will trash the economy, raise gas prices, raise inflation, and sic hordes of IRS agents onto small businesses and other low income taxpayers who can't fight back. As the nightmare filters through society and things get worse and worse, who will voters then blame for it? The GOP, of course. Gee, things have gotten so much worse than they were even under the Democrats!
Democrats know how these stink bombs work. They've sent out a new one for the GOP to claim ownership of and are betting that the GOP will fall for it. They've got it baked in the cake.
JUDICIAL WATCH’S TEN MOST CORRUPT LIST
NO ONE HAS SUCKED OFF BIG BANKSTERS MORE THAN BARACK OBAMA AND NOT ONE EVER WENT TO PRISON! AND 'CREDIT CARD' JOE WAS THE OBOMB'S V.P. BECAUSE OF HIS LONG HISTORY OF SUCKING OFF BANKSTERS.
President Barack Obama: During his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political corruption to the White House. JUDICIAL WATCH
ON THE VERY LAST DAY OF AMERICA, THE PIG POLITICIANS WILL BE SUCKING BRIBES FROM THE CRIMINALS ON WALL STREET AND BANKSTERS.
THE COUNTRY IS NOW SO PROFOUNDLY CORRUPT THAT THE BANKSTERS WILL PUT THEIR OWN IN THE WHITE HOUSE AS PRESIDENT. CANDIDATES MUST BE A GAMER LAWYER WITH A LONG HISTORY OF PROTECTING CRIMINAL BANKSTERS!
NEO-FASCIST MARK ZUCKERBERG SAYS HE WILL ELECT OBOMB FOR A THIRD TERM!
Barack Obama Calls for More Censorship: First Amendment ‘Does Not Apply to Facebook and Twitter’
JUDICIAL WATCH’S TEN MOST CORRUPT LIST
President Barack Obama: During his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political corruption to the White House. JUDICIAL WATCH
https://ca-judicial-performance-hoax.blogspot.com/2022/04/lawless-lawyers-bankster-regime-of.html
THE IMAGE OF TWO GAMER LAWYERS OWNED BY BIG BANKSTERS: BANKSTER-BOUGHT BARACK OBAMA'S 'CREDIT CARD' JOE AND WALL STREET CHUCKY!
Hauser also didn’t like the prevalence of Big Law talent on the Department of Justice team, which signaled to him that the Biden administration could go soft on corporate malefactors. Alexander Nazaryan
Congress Approves Corporate Welfare Scheme in Undisputed Victory for Democrats
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Never underestimate Congress’s ability to revive dead bills, and bad ideas, if enough money is used to revive them.
Such is the case with the revival and swift passage of a massive subsidy bill for the computer chip industry that, on its own, would have taken corporate welfare to bizarre new heights. This being Congress – and it also being an election year – the price tag ballooned with an extra $200 billion or so in federal spending, grants, giveaways and old-fashioned pork.
It’s enough to make even the most cynical of us think we are starry-eyed optimists when it comes to pols spending other people’s money (that being taxpayer money, of course). Consider this gem:
According to various reports, the subsidies would not only provide a financial windfall for semiconductor companies in [Sen. Chuck] Schumer’s home state of New York (something he openly admits), but also reportedly constitute one of the few “political wins” that the Democrats can deliver to President Biden and candidates in key battleground states like Arizona and Ohio ahead of the midterm elections in November—“huge leverage” that chipmakers and other subsidy supporters are perfectly willing to exploit today. Meanwhile, several of the congressional Republicans who support the subsidies—smaller in number than Democratic supporters but essential to the subsidies’ legislative success—also host semiconductor companies or large semiconductor consumers in their states or districts.
In other words, it’s vote-buying, but the perfectly legal, above-board, in broad daylight kind that Congress mastered even before the ink on the Constitution was dry.
And just when you think it couldn’t get any more tawdry:
Congress appears intent on subsidizing an industry making record profits, already building facilities here, and even facing a potential glut—not because doing so makes good economic sense but because the Democratic leadership and the White House need a “political win” and are under serious pressure from powerful domestic interest groups to deliver the cash. Indeed, even as the subsidies’ economic justifications dwindled, the subsidy amounts increased.
It might, possibly be a little funny…were Uncle Sam not flat broke. But hey – those bills don’t come due until long after the current crop of time servers has gone to the great campaign fundraiser in the sky.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Josh Hawley: FBI colluded with Big Tech to bury Hunter Biden story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnC0cxOBCfc
VIDEO
Ralph Nader: Biden's First Year Proves He Is Still a "Corporate Socialist" Beholden to Big Business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jTIUtjkDss&t=28s
Hauser also didn’t like the prevalence of Big Law talent on the Department of Justice team, which signaled to him that the Biden administration could go soft on corporate malefactors. Alexander Nazaryan
The Biden family's corruption 'spans the globe': Schweizer
Watters: The Five (CRIME) Families of the Democrat Party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBpvvHethg0
HOW MANY ARE LAWYERS???
Schweizer: ‘It’s Going to Be Business as Usual’ for Hunter’s Dealings
Joe Biden, the corrupt, unaccomplished 47-year career politician, with a reputation of having been a proud segregationist, an unabashed plagiarist and liar, a resolute tale-teller, and a serial flip-flopper, is pretending to head up a radical social-democratic ticket for President of the United States that includes as his running mate the ambitious, disagreeable junior senator from California: Kamala Harris.
What's behind the Biden family's 'opulent' lifestyle?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OKIvDDNAC8
THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY OF PARASITE LAWYERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
JAMES BIDEN RAKES IT IN!
Jesse Watters Primetime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt0iMhgtBmI
With no moral code, no center, nothing matters. You just read what’s in the teleprompter and hit the sack by 7:00 while your degenerate son collects piles of cash for the family until you’re free to do it on your own. All you have to do is what you’re told, your handlers and the media will take care of the rest. DEREK HUNTER
WHERE DID ALL OF GAMER LAWYER JOE BIDEN’S BIG BUCKS COME FROM?
video
Where did Biden's millions come from?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlS88MKI-DA
There it is. That's the issue. To begin, you have the corrupt family Biden. They've been scamming us and our system well for almost fifty years. The man is supposedly worth over 250 million dollars. How is this possible on his salary? It's not. So where did his wealth come from? Not from being a brilliant businessman. DAVID PRENTICE
Watters: The Five (CRIME) Families of the Democrat Party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBpvvHethg0
HOW MANY ARE LAWYERS???
Schweizer: ‘It’s Going to Be Business as Usual’ for Hunter’s Dealings
Joe Biden, the corrupt, unaccomplished 47-year career politician, with a reputation of having been a proud segregationist, an unabashed plagiarist and liar, a resolute tale-teller, and a serial flip-flopper, is pretending to head up a radical social-democratic ticket for President of the United States that includes as his running mate the ambitious, disagreeable junior senator from California: Kamala Harris.
Watchdogs Sound Alarm as Biden Tires to Strong Arm Tech Companies to Censor Green New Deal Critics
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Today, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and Subcommittee on the Environment Ranking Member Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.) raised serious concerns over the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to suppress free speech and silence any who criticize the administration’s unpopular Green New Deal agenda. In a letter to White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, the Republican lawmakers highlighted how McCarthy is actively pushing Big Tech to censor legitimate criticism of Green New Deal policies and emphasized how this administration is seeking to discredit disagreement over its failed policies by blaming disinformation on social media. To conduct oversight over possible collusion of top administration officials with Big Tech companies, the lawmakers are requesting all documents and communications between White House employees and Big Tech companies regarding the censorship of climate-related information on social platforms.
“Your call to censor those who disagree with the Biden administration is troubling, particularly given recent plans at the Department of Homeland Security to form a Disinformation Governance Board. Committee Republicans request documents and other information regarding the use of your government office to pressure Big Tech companies to censor individuals who disagree with you,” wrote the lawmakers. “President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone Pipeline, attack domestic oil and gas producers, and enact other progressive Green New Deal style initiatives have led to disastrous and unpopular consequences for the American people. Instead of taking responsibility for these failed policies, the Biden Administration is blaming private companies for surging gas prices, soaring inflation, and skyrocketing utility costs. Now, the Administration’s climate team is deflecting and discrediting legitimate criticism and disagreement over its failed policies by blaming disinformation on social media. This attack on free speech is troubling.”
In a June 9, 2022, interview, McCarthy described how the Biden Administration is pushing for tech companies to monitor climate debate on social platforms and stop allowing specific individuals to spread so-called disinformation regarding climate issues. The move appears to be an effort to silence those who criticize Green New Deal style policies that are raising the cost of energy for all Americans.
“Instead of working for the American people on solutions to bring prices down, such as streamlining the permitting process, the Administration itself promotes disinformation by blaming high gas prices on the conflict in Ukraine, even though prices were rising under President Biden’s failed leadership long before Russia’s invasion. In fact, high energy prices are a direct result of the Administration’s war on domestic energy production. President Biden has refused to even meet with oil and gas companies choosing instead to ask Saudi Arabia for oil and gas,” continued the lawmakers.
Read the letter to McCarthy here.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Meet the Democrats Who Could Replace Joe Biden
At this moment, in theory, (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Biden is going to run for re-election.
That being said, there is a significant chance he will not. He could decide on his own not to, Dr. Jill could be charged with elder abuse for allowing him to run again, he could lose the TV remote and get permanently lost in the White House while muttering about damn fancy stupid gadgets, the decimal point on all of his prescriptions could be moved one place to the right, he could suffer a grave injury in a game of "pull my finger" that goes horribly awry, or China could just finish the job and invade before the election. The list goes on and on.
With these myriad possibilities floating in the political ether, the few dozen Democrats around the country thinking about having a go at the top spot can hardly be blamed for engaging in just a bit of pre-planning. Can you really fault the kids for stopping by the lawyer's office first while they are driving dad to the home?
The majority of the people mentioned below are mostly in the "first impression" stage of meeting the national electorate. But much can be gleaned from even the glancing-blow candidacies now occurring, as those first impressions — even more so than policies and résumés — are crucial to creating the framework of a successful campaign. Even having a presence that, while not actively horrible, is still just a bit off-putting can sink a politician, especially in a close contest.
It is possible that (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Biden will somehow cobble together the wherewithal to run (at the very least — like John Gill in the original Star Trek Nazi planet episode — be cobbled together by power-hungry staffers and such). If that occurs, the candidates will have to think long and hard about running. Remember, not even Teddy Kennedy could take out Jimmy Carter. But someone will try — guaranteed.
In no particular order — because none is particularly special — here are the Democrat benchwarmers itching to move up to The Show:
- Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer — Midwest/Rust Belt base is helpful, but her "rules for thee, not for me" COVID activities and what should be a tough re-election campaign this fall are not helpful.
- Minnesota senator (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Amy Klobuchar — Relatively moderate and hung around long enough in 2020 to build a bit of credibility, but there is not much there there — policy or personality-wise — and reports of her "mean boss" ways are a problem.
- New Jersey governor Phil Murphy — His proximity to the media centers in New York is an asset, as is his homespun-ish appearance, but his very, very close re-election (it was not at all supposed to be that way) is a dampener.
- Massachusetts senator (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Elizabeth Warren — Raised her profile with a decent 2020 run, media darling, and somewhat politically astute (at least regarding her base). She will face the headwinds of being a shrill technocrat most recognizable to the public for being Fauxcahontas.
- Illinois governor (JUST A PIG) J.B. Pritzker — He's rich, so there's that, but he's the opposite of telegenic and is presiding over a state government that manages to be simultaneously so incredibly corrupt and disarmingly incompetent that even the national media may actually notice.
- New Jersey senator (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Cory Booker — Nah, not really. Seats on many, many corporate boards and foundations seem to be his future. Sorry.
- Colorado governor Jared Polis — An intriguing liberal/Libertarian mix who would have cross-over appeal in the general election, and he's gay, so that's politically neato. Challenges in his home state and his party's hyper-progressive primary voter base make his road to the nomination nearly impassable.
- California governor Gavin Newsom — The Golden Boy from the Golden State, though, unlike medieval alchemists, he has managed to turn gold into lead. Polished, perfunctory, and pomaded, his shtick appeals to people of a certain class and mindset and repels most others.
- Vice President (GAMER PIG LAWYER AND CLONE OF BIDEN) Kamala Harris — She should have listened to her former boyfriend, (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Willie Brown, and held out for attorney general. At least in that job fewer people would have noticed what an utter train wreck she is.
An aside on Gavin and (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Kamala — they are, politically, the same candidate. They came up in a system in California that custom-makes coddled candidates who can thrive there but nowhere else. Like hothouse orchids, they are un-transplantable and destined to raise and then fail to live up to the hopes of their supporters and well-wishers and craven flacks outside the state. For a more in-depth look at this phenomenon, feel free to click here.
That being said, Newsom is one of the most likely folks to challenge Biden if he does run for re-election. Life — good looks, other people's money, not too many questions asked — has always been easy for Gavin, so why, he thinks, would this be at al different?
Back to Murderers' Row:
- New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — The candidate who most keeps Republicans up at night — not in that way (despite her claims of being a siren/victim), but a good way nonetheless. If she wrangled the Democratic nod, it is quite possible that any Republican candidate could be the first person since George Washington to get every single Electoral College vote (and I'm not even forgetting about D.C.). But Republicans will have to wait for that delight, because she'll be only 34 in 2024.
- North Carolina governor Roy Cooper — Moderate, white, straight, Southern, male ice hockey fan? Yeah, good luck with that.
- (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Hilary Rodham Clinton (no job title needed) — Ah, the woman scorned. Instant base, name recognition that is off the charts, access to boatloads of cash, and a burning desire to one-up (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Bill. Downsides? To start, she managed to lose to both Donald Trump and (GAMER PIG LAWYER)Barack Obama and nearly lost to Bernie Sanders — die-hard Democrats might notice that. Add that grisly track record to her many character and policy flaws, and even she might be in trouble. But she would still run, at the very least to jumpstart the fundraising grift of the family foundation (seems all those good-hearted billionaire oligarchs stopped giving after she stopped running — who'da thunk it?).
- Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg — White, but gay, so that won't hurt him too much. A technocrat, a beta male, unprepossessing. Women like him for his nesting tendencies, and he has not obviously completely blowtorched his current gig (such as it is). He was a bit of a "shiny new thing" in 2020 — not exactly true anymore, but he's already beating Biden in the polling, so who knows? Not likely to run against Biden, but rather more likely to be the person chosen by the powers-that-be to replace him.
Oh, there are others — Tom Steyer (skin crawl), Tulsi Gabbard (is she still a Democrat?), Andrew Yang (definitely not still a Democrat), Eric "The Spy Who Loved Me" Swalwell, Gina Raimondo (if you don't live in Rhode Island or follow the Commerce Department on Instagram, you'll have to look that one up), greener-than thou Jay Inslee, etc. are possibly lurking but have no hope of making an impact.
But there are two others whom you will know by their first names alone — (GAMER PIG LAWYER) Michelle and Oprah. They might be the strongest candidates the Democrats have. God help us all, they would be tough to beat.
Thomas Buckley is the former mayor of Lake Elsinore and a former newspaper reporter. He is currently the operator of a small communications and planning consultancy and can be reached directly at planbuckley@gmail.com. You can read more of his work at https://thomas699.substack.com.
Image via Flickr, public domain
Democrats: $625B Tax Cut for Wealthy Elite ‘Essential’ Ahead of Midterms
Democrats say cutting hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes for mostly wealthy income-earners in coastal states is “essential” to getting reelected in this year’s midterm elections.
In November, House Democrats passed President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better Act” which includes billions in tax breaks to the wealthiest residents of blue states. Specifically, the plan would give a tax cut to about 67 percent of the nation’s richest Americans — those earning more than $885,000 every year — costing taxpayers about $625 billion.
Under Biden’s plan, those in the top one percent would receive an average tax cut of more than $16,000 this year. The tax cuts for the wealthy would be a result of the plan’s increasing the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap.
Ahead of the midterm elections in November, House Democrats are warning their rich donors that they must get out and vote for them to secure the massive tax cut. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) called the tax cuts for the rich “essential” in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Biden, for instance, had sought to include tax cuts for his billionaire donors in a Chinese coronavirus relief package earlier this year. The plan was ultimately cut from the package. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), in May 2020, also tried to include the plan in a coronavirus relief package. JOHN BINDER
Gaetz: Biden, Democrats Weaponizing the IRS Against Americans
Thursday on FNC’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) warned efforts to bolster the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was an effort by the Biden administration and Democrats to “weaponize” the government against its people.
The Florida Republican congressman said that paired with Democrats’ opposition to firearms, had prompted him to propose legislation.
“Well, Joe Biden is raising taxes, disarming Americans, so of course, they are arming up the IRS like they’re preparing to take Volusia,” he said. “Like you mentioned, five million rounds of ammunition, 4,500 firearms, automatic weapons, and $731,000 of taxpayer money spent this year to quite literally weaponize your government against you.”
“So, it’s not really that Joe Biden and the Democrats hate guns,” Gaetz continued. “They just hate law-abiding Americans having them, and they take the money from the people to go and have their own little private arsenals, and it is particularly egregious from a country that militarizes its bureaucracies and then forces its grandmothers to go and fend for themselves on dangerous streets because they defund the police and have cashless bail and other hug-a-thug woke criminal justice policies. That’s why I’m introducing legislation to stop it.”
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND THEIR PIG BILLIONAIRES!
The Schumer-Manchin plan includes billions in green energy tax credits that would be swooped up by billionaires to cut their corporations’ annual tax burdens. Jeff Bezos’s Amazon notoriously employs this strategy to pay close to zero in corporate income taxes.
Breitbart News’s John Carney writes:
Amazon’s tax bills were part of the inspiration for a minimum tax. The company faced no federal corporate income tax liability in 2017 and 2018. In the years since, it has had an effective tax rate that is just a fraction of the 21 percent rate put in place by the Trump administration’s tax reforms. According to the calculations of Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, over the past four years Amazon’s effective aggregate tax rate was just 5.1 percent. [Emphasis added]
…
While the alternate minimum tax would prevent companies from using deductions for capital investments or stock-based compensation, it continues to allow them to use tax credits, Daniel Bunn of the Tax Foundation told us. In fact, the bill includes hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new tax credits aimed at fostering green technology adoption. And Amazon plays in beast mode when it comes to using tax credits to reduce its tax bill. [Emphasis added]
Jeff Bezo’s retail giant said in its annual report that tax credits reduced the taxes it would have otherwise owed by $1.1 billion. The company has said that most of those tax credits are federal research and development credits, although it does not give much detail in its annual reports. The Manchin-Schumer tax bill would not touch this. Amazon will lose the benefit of the write-off for stock-based compensation, but the company will most likely at least partially offset that by using the green tech tax credits. The end result could be no change in Amazon’s tax rate. [Emphasis added]
Sen. Josh Hawley Asks FTC to Investigate Amazon Deal to Buy Medical Clinic Chain
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently sent a letter to the FTC requesting a review of the proposed $3.9 billion merger between Amazon and One Medical, a chain of medical clinics whose acquisition would mark Amazon’s latest move to take over the healthcare industry.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked the FTC in a recent letter to investigate the proposed $3.9 billion buyout deal between Amazon and One Medical.
Hawley wrote in the letter, “I realize that the FTC is currently engaged in numerous efforts to combat America’s accelerating economic concentration and the power of tech behemoths. Nevertheless, I urge you to prioritize a searching review of this particular transaction.”
Hawley stated that the acquisition would “provide Amazon with access to enormous tranches of patient data,” and while he acknowledged that HIPAA and other privacy laws could “thwart the worst potential abuses,” he noted that “loopholes exist in every legal framework.”
Hawley stated that some privacy-related scenarios “once written off as scaremongering fictions, are now a very real possibility.” Hawley provided one scenario, stating: “For instance, if an individual is diagnosed with high blood pressure by a One Medical doctor, will he later be advertised over-the-counter blood pressure medications whenever he shops at Whole Foods Market?”
Hawley also claimed that the deal would reinforce Amazon’s market dominance and may even reshape the power dynamic of the primary care space.
“It doesn’t matter if the primary care market as such is presently competitive: by having its hand in dozens of smaller markets, Amazon positions itself to eventually emerge as the dominant player in each, as cross-subsidization allows Amazon to offer services at a loss and data-driven network effects allow Amazon to market at a level its competitors cannot match,” Hawley stated.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan
Democrats Latest Plan: Target Middle Class Americans with IRS Audits, Keep Billionaire Loopholes Open
A bill backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) would unleash the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on middle class Americans while keeping tax loopholes open for billionaires and their multinational corporations.
The plan, which Schumer and Manchin have agreed to, would massively bulk up IRS audits and criminal investigations to the sum of tens of billions of dollars — nearly all of which will be dedicated to going after middle class Americans squeezed by inflation.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board details the scheme:
The bill earmarks $45.6 billion for “enforcement,” including “litigation,” “criminal investigations,” “investigative technology,” “digital asset monitoring” and a new fleet of tax-collector cars. The result will be far more audits, civil suits and criminal referrals. [Emphasis added]
The main targets will by necessity be the middle- and upper-middle class because that’s where the money is. The Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official tax scorekeeper, says that from 78% to 90% of the money raised from under-reported income would likely come from those making less than $200,000 a year. Only 4% to 9% would come from those making more than $500,000. [Emphasis added]
The IRS knows the super-wealthy employ lawyers and accountants who make litigation time-consuming and risky. It also knows that Democrats would howl if the agency pursues fraud in the earned-income tax credit program, despite what the IRS has estimated are $18 billion in improper payments each year. [Emphasis added]
At the same time, tax provisions hugely benefitting billionaires and their multinational corporations would go untouched.
The Schumer-Manchin plan includes billions in green energy tax credits that would be swooped up by billionaires to cut their corporations’ annual tax burdens. Jeff Bezos’s Amazon notoriously employs this strategy to pay close to zero in corporate income taxes.
Breitbart News’s John Carney writes:
Amazon’s tax bills were part of the inspiration for a minimum tax. The company faced no federal corporate income tax liability in 2017 and 2018. In the years since, it has had an effective tax rate that is just a fraction of the 21 percent rate put in place by the Trump administration’s tax reforms. According to the calculations of Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, over the past four years Amazon’s effective aggregate tax rate was just 5.1 percent. [Emphasis added]
…
While the alternate minimum tax would prevent companies from using deductions for capital investments or stock-based compensation, it continues to allow them to use tax credits, Daniel Bunn of the Tax Foundation told us. In fact, the bill includes hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new tax credits aimed at fostering green technology adoption. And Amazon plays in beast mode when it comes to using tax credits to reduce its tax bill. [Emphasis added]
Jeff Bezo’s retail giant said in its annual report that tax credits reduced the taxes it would have otherwise owed by $1.1 billion. The company has said that most of those tax credits are federal research and development credits, although it does not give much detail in its annual reports. The Manchin-Schumer tax bill would not touch this. Amazon will lose the benefit of the write-off for stock-based compensation, but the company will most likely at least partially offset that by using the green tech tax credits. The end result could be no change in Amazon’s tax rate. [Emphasis added]
President Joe Biden and House Democrats tried to pass a similar tax plan last year as part of the administration’s “Build Back Better” agenda that has failed to catch on in Congress.
That plan would have targeted an additional nearly 600,000 working and middle class Americans earning less than $75,000 a year with IRS audits. Of those new IRS audits, more than 313,000 would have targeted the poorest of Americans who earn $25,000 or less a year.
Similar to the Schumer-Manchin bill, Biden’s plan would have provided a $625 billion tax cut for the wealthiest Americans living in blue states — paid for by working and middle class Americans.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
Breitbart Business Digest: Manchin’s Tax Hike Does Not Touch Amazon’s Biggest Tax Break
Amazon is not sweating the corporate tax hike in the Joe Manchin-approved climate spending bill.
The deceptively named Inflation Reduction Act would impose an alternative minimum tax on companies with over $1 billion in financial profits. It levies a 15 percent tax on financial account income, the kind that gets reported to investors in quarterly and annual company filings.
Amazon’s tax bills were part of the inspiration for a minimum tax. The company faced no federal corporate income tax liability in 2017 and 2018. In the years since, it has had an effective tax rate that is just a fraction of the 21 percent rate put in place by the Trump administration’s tax reforms. According to the calculations of Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, over the past four years Amazon’s effective aggregate tax rate was just 5.1 percent.
Last year, President Joe Biden singled out Amazon’s ability to avoid paying more in taxes, saying it was “just wrong” that a company so profitable could pay so little. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has made Amazon her personal tax piñata, frequently saying the company should be required to pay much more in taxes. When Sens. Warren, Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Angus King (I-ME) proposed a similar 15 percent minimum tax last year, they specifically said they were targeting Amazon.
The day Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he had reached a deal with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to raise taxes and hike spending on climate change pork, Amazon’s shares were trading around $121. On Wednesday, they closed above $134, a ten percent gain in less than a week. Amazon reported earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations during that week, which explains the jump. But it does not seem like investors are worried that Amazon may soon face a tax bill three times larger than in recent years.
There’s good reason for that. While the alternate minimum tax would prevent companies from using deductions for capital investments or stock-based compensation, it continues to allow them to use tax credits, Daniel Bunn of the Tax Foundation told us. In fact, the bill includes hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new tax credits aimed at fostering green technology adoption. And Amazon plays in beast mode when it comes to using tax credits to reduce its tax bill.
Jeff Bezo’s retail giant said in its annual report that tax credits reduced the taxes it would have otherwise owed by $1.1 billion. The company has said that most of those tax credits are federal research and development credits, although it does not give much detail in its annual reports. The Manchin-Schumer tax bill would not touch this. Amazon will lose the benefit of the write-off for stock-based compensation, but the company will most likely at least partially offset that by using the green tech tax credits. The end result could be no change in Amazon’s tax rate.
It’s possible that Amazon’s tax rate could even fall if it aggressively cashes in on the climate change tax credits.
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