Obama’s Global Tax Raid

I was just reading this, Obama’s Global Tax Raid

America now has the worst of both worlds — a high statutory rate and a tax code so riddled with complexity that it is both expensive to administer and inefficient at collecting revenue. And yet Mr. Obama’s proposal to limit deferral only layers on the complexity.

In promoting its new global tax raid, the White House fingered the Netherlands, which it lumped with Ireland and Bermuda as “small, low-tax countries” that supposedly account for an outsize share of reported foreign profits of U.S. firms. The Dutch corporate tax rate is 25.5% — which isn’t even all that low by current European standards. And the U.S. is the largest foreign investor in that “small, low-tax country,” according to the Dutch Embassy. Perhaps reducing American investment there and slamming the Netherlands as a tax haven is Mr. Obama’s way of reaching out to friends and allies.

But the Netherlands won’t be the only country hurt. The explicit goal of this plan is to reduce the incentive for U.S. companies to invest abroad, which Mr. Obama derisively calls “shipping jobs overseas.” Foreign companies may relish the loss of U.S. corporate competitiveness that his proposal will bring in the short term. But in the long term, reducing U.S. investment globally will hurt everyone. And that investment is a two-way street — the Netherlands is also the fourth-largest foreign investor in the U.S.

If that sounds convoluted, it’s because it is.

After reading the WSJ article I went to Memeorandum and found this, A Tax Attack on America’s Top Companies
Obama plans a $190 billion hit on U.S.-based multinationals.

Among the employers in Obama’s crosshairs: Aetna, Alcoa, Allstate, American Express, Berkshire Hathaway, Best Buy, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, Costco Wholesale, Dell, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, Ford, General Motors, GMAC, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, Kroger, McDonald’s, Merck, Microsoft, Motorola, News Corp., PepsiCo, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble, Safeway, Sears, Sprint Nextel, Supervalu, Sysco, Target, Time Warner, Walgreens, and Walt Disney.

So now I’m wondering how much money those companies contributed to the Obama campaign – directly, through their unions, or any other ways.

Buyers’ remorse, anyone?