New currency won't deter DC lobbyists
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
CBS News correspondent Charles Kuralt once said: “Most Americans, it turns out, are not running for office, not running from the police, and not alienated from their society. Their lives are well filled, their nature is generous, and they are at peace with their neighbors.”
Who knew?
Most Americans, including you and me and most of the people we know, fit neatly within Mr. Kuralt’s definition of the average American. We get up, go off to school or work, try to do our best, go home, and do it again the next day.
We don’t make headlines. But maybe, just maybe, we would have been interesting enough or peculiar enough for one of Charles Kuralt’s “On the Road” features. Kuralt died almost 15 years ago, on the Fourth of July 1997, and I still miss his CBS News segments.
As of this early Wednesday morning writing, the nation’s top news headlines were:
• The federal budget deficit;
• Oil futures and rising fuel prices;
• Charlie Sheen says he may return to his TV show;
• Former boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard was KO’d on “Dancing With the Stars;” and,
• A New York mother and three of her children drowned this week after she purposely drove her minivan into the Hudson River. She did let one child out of the van who could only stand by and watch the murder-suicide of his family.
As Anne Murray said, “We Sure Could Use a Little Good News Today.”
* * *
Not that this qualifies as good news, but a couple of billionaires are proposing a North American currency to compete with the Euro. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and George Soros supposedly are discussing a monetary collaboration among the United States, Canada and Mexico for a North American dollar.
(Wait for it.)
They’re going to call it the NADA…
* * *
Maybe you and I need our own lobbyist. Better yet, maybe we ought to become lobbyists.
There’s a report by a trio of University of Kansas professors that shows just one Washington, D.C. lobbyist group provided a 22,000-percent ROI (return on investment).
That brings to mind a chamber of commerce meeting discussion I had several years ago with a group of small business owners. This was a late-winter meeting, around tax time. Since many of us were in our respective budget seasons, one businessman mentioned he’d had a 15-percent ROI the previous year. The company where I was working was sitting on a 30-percent return. Both of us felt somewhat fortunate at the time, given southern Ohio’s never-ending recessionary economy.
But a 22,000-percent return on investment? How is that possible?
If you said: “It’s not possible in the real world, it’s only possible if taxpayers are being duped into subsidizing the 22,000-percent ROI;” then you can skip the rest of the class, take your A+ and we’ll hand you a diploma on the way outta town.
Anyone who pays a single dollar of federal taxes ought to be thoroughly urinated off by what Kansas scholars Raquel Meyer Alexander, an assistant professor of accounting, Stephen Mazza, an associate dean of the School of Law, and Susan Scholz, an associate professor of accounting and Harper Faculty Fellow, have found.
Specifically, they learned that a one-time tax break allowed several multinational corporations to receive this 22,000-percent return on lobbying expenditures.
According to the Kansas website, this recent law change “provided a tax break to the corporations by lowering their tax rate 85 percent on certain worldwide income. The professors examined the extensive lobbying around the law change and found that for each dollar spent on lobbying, a corporation received $220 in U.S. income tax savings.”
This was all done six or seven years ago under the umbrella of something called The American Jobs Creation Act. And, if this was just an act, you don’t want to see the full production. Not to mention the cast of characters.
(The act) “among other provisions, allowed U.S. multinational corporations a one-time opportunity to bring home foreign earnings at an extremely low tax rate. In effect, it lowered the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to a maximum of 5.25 percent on repatriated amounts. In response, 843 firms repatriated more than $312 billion at this reduced tax rate. Using financial disclosures in the annual reports of multinational corporations, the researchers examined 476 firms that repatriated more than $298 billion,” the university reported.
The professors said more than 105 companies repatriated more than $500 million. They listed several huge corporations with very familiar names. (Use your imagination – or your favorite online search engine.)
They “concluded that repatriation provided significant tax savings to a relatively small group of larger, older and more profitable companies.”
No shi….nola?
(Professors) Alexander, Mazza and Scholz “concluded that the tax policy implications are troubling. Many economic development policies are aimed at supporting emerging firms and industries. This tax provision appears to be doing the opposite as it provides tax subsidies to well-established and highly profitable firms and industries.”
Dean Mazza said he hopes the study informs elected officials when similar provisions are introduced. “Perhaps it is time for a national conversation about the role of lobbyists in tax reform,” the dean said. “We should be concerned when a corporation’s most lucrative investment is in lobbying the government for tax benefits.”
Amen, Brother. And as Mayor Dick Zink might say, we can all sing from that hymn book.
* * *
While reading about Capitol Hill lobbyists, I also stumbled across some other interesting tidbits about a few other bloodsuckers, er, lobbyists.
A report in Business Week (www.businessweek.com) around the time of the transition of the current president included this gem, under the headline: “Marriage of partisans: Crossing the aisle.”
Business Week pointed out that, when it comes to money, politicians are more than willing to let bygones be bygones.
“These days, the savviest lobbying firms are hedging their bets. Predominantly Republican firms are scrambling to add Democrats, while others are keeping influencers from both parties who are respected by the opposition,” the online magazine reported.
Business Week gave a few classic examples of these strange bedfellows.
“Such marriages of partisan convenience are as common as tassled loafers on K Street,” the magazine said.
Now, I’ve seen the loafers on K Street, but I guess I just didn’t realize people were talking about shoes.
These “marriages of partisan convenience” include:
• Former Louisiana Democrat John Breaux and Mississippi Republican Trent Lott, with 70 years in Congress between them, started their own firm, the Breaux Lott Leadership Group.
• Kenneth Duberstein, who was Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff, partnered with Michael Berman, a former Clinton White House adviser and Democratic conventions organizer.
• Then, there’s the Ogilvy Government Relations lobbying firm – managed by Wayne Berman, a longtime GOP lobbyist who raised money for John McCain – partnering with Democrats like Moses Mercado, a former aide to (former) Democrat Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, and Dean Aguillen, a former staffer with Democrat Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The magazine points out that there are many other examples of once bitter, partisan rivals on C-SPAN, walking away from the House or Senate floors with a wink or a nod for cocktails and cash.
Both political parties do it. Both parties rely on the rest of us, in the words of Charles Kuralt, to be too busy not running for office, not running from the police, and not alienated from society. “Our lives are well filled, our nature is generous, and we are at peace with our neighbors.”
Compare that to a federal government whose life is also well filled, but whose nature is confiscatory, and who is at war with many.
* * *
Lastly, and just for fun, the following public information was made available to me this week upon request:
These city of Hillsboro departments have the following cable and/or satellite television contracts, according to the auditor's office:
• Police Department: Time Warner (Cable package with two additional lines) $60.59 per month, with a price increase of 5 percent starting with the May 2011 billing.
• Fire/Life Squad: Time Warner $50.19 per month, with a price increase of 5 percent starting with the May 2011 billing.
• Sewer Plant: Dish Network $60.99 per month.
• Street Department: Time Warner (no charge).
• Water Plant: Time Warner (no charge).
Now, in addition to the more than $2,000 a year of taxpayers' money for these services, and in addition to the TVs themselves, one has to wonder: How much time does each department watch television while on the clock? Or do they come in after hours to watch TV?
I doesn't know. No one ever paid me to watch television.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
Who knew?
Most Americans, including you and me and most of the people we know, fit neatly within Mr. Kuralt’s definition of the average American. We get up, go off to school or work, try to do our best, go home, and do it again the next day.
We don’t make headlines. But maybe, just maybe, we would have been interesting enough or peculiar enough for one of Charles Kuralt’s “On the Road” features. Kuralt died almost 15 years ago, on the Fourth of July 1997, and I still miss his CBS News segments.
As of this early Wednesday morning writing, the nation’s top news headlines were:
• The federal budget deficit;
• Oil futures and rising fuel prices;
• Charlie Sheen says he may return to his TV show;
• Former boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard was KO’d on “Dancing With the Stars;” and,
• A New York mother and three of her children drowned this week after she purposely drove her minivan into the Hudson River. She did let one child out of the van who could only stand by and watch the murder-suicide of his family.
As Anne Murray said, “We Sure Could Use a Little Good News Today.”
* * *
Not that this qualifies as good news, but a couple of billionaires are proposing a North American currency to compete with the Euro. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and George Soros supposedly are discussing a monetary collaboration among the United States, Canada and Mexico for a North American dollar.
(Wait for it.)
They’re going to call it the NADA…
* * *
Maybe you and I need our own lobbyist. Better yet, maybe we ought to become lobbyists.
There’s a report by a trio of University of Kansas professors that shows just one Washington, D.C. lobbyist group provided a 22,000-percent ROI (return on investment).
That brings to mind a chamber of commerce meeting discussion I had several years ago with a group of small business owners. This was a late-winter meeting, around tax time. Since many of us were in our respective budget seasons, one businessman mentioned he’d had a 15-percent ROI the previous year. The company where I was working was sitting on a 30-percent return. Both of us felt somewhat fortunate at the time, given southern Ohio’s never-ending recessionary economy.
But a 22,000-percent return on investment? How is that possible?
If you said: “It’s not possible in the real world, it’s only possible if taxpayers are being duped into subsidizing the 22,000-percent ROI;” then you can skip the rest of the class, take your A+ and we’ll hand you a diploma on the way outta town.
Anyone who pays a single dollar of federal taxes ought to be thoroughly urinated off by what Kansas scholars Raquel Meyer Alexander, an assistant professor of accounting, Stephen Mazza, an associate dean of the School of Law, and Susan Scholz, an associate professor of accounting and Harper Faculty Fellow, have found.
Specifically, they learned that a one-time tax break allowed several multinational corporations to receive this 22,000-percent return on lobbying expenditures.
According to the Kansas website, this recent law change “provided a tax break to the corporations by lowering their tax rate 85 percent on certain worldwide income. The professors examined the extensive lobbying around the law change and found that for each dollar spent on lobbying, a corporation received $220 in U.S. income tax savings.”
This was all done six or seven years ago under the umbrella of something called The American Jobs Creation Act. And, if this was just an act, you don’t want to see the full production. Not to mention the cast of characters.
(The act) “among other provisions, allowed U.S. multinational corporations a one-time opportunity to bring home foreign earnings at an extremely low tax rate. In effect, it lowered the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to a maximum of 5.25 percent on repatriated amounts. In response, 843 firms repatriated more than $312 billion at this reduced tax rate. Using financial disclosures in the annual reports of multinational corporations, the researchers examined 476 firms that repatriated more than $298 billion,” the university reported.
The professors said more than 105 companies repatriated more than $500 million. They listed several huge corporations with very familiar names. (Use your imagination – or your favorite online search engine.)
They “concluded that repatriation provided significant tax savings to a relatively small group of larger, older and more profitable companies.”
No shi….nola?
(Professors) Alexander, Mazza and Scholz “concluded that the tax policy implications are troubling. Many economic development policies are aimed at supporting emerging firms and industries. This tax provision appears to be doing the opposite as it provides tax subsidies to well-established and highly profitable firms and industries.”
Dean Mazza said he hopes the study informs elected officials when similar provisions are introduced. “Perhaps it is time for a national conversation about the role of lobbyists in tax reform,” the dean said. “We should be concerned when a corporation’s most lucrative investment is in lobbying the government for tax benefits.”
Amen, Brother. And as Mayor Dick Zink might say, we can all sing from that hymn book.
* * *
While reading about Capitol Hill lobbyists, I also stumbled across some other interesting tidbits about a few other bloodsuckers, er, lobbyists.
A report in Business Week (www.businessweek.com) around the time of the transition of the current president included this gem, under the headline: “Marriage of partisans: Crossing the aisle.”
Business Week pointed out that, when it comes to money, politicians are more than willing to let bygones be bygones.
“These days, the savviest lobbying firms are hedging their bets. Predominantly Republican firms are scrambling to add Democrats, while others are keeping influencers from both parties who are respected by the opposition,” the online magazine reported.
Business Week gave a few classic examples of these strange bedfellows.
“Such marriages of partisan convenience are as common as tassled loafers on K Street,” the magazine said.
Now, I’ve seen the loafers on K Street, but I guess I just didn’t realize people were talking about shoes.
These “marriages of partisan convenience” include:
• Former Louisiana Democrat John Breaux and Mississippi Republican Trent Lott, with 70 years in Congress between them, started their own firm, the Breaux Lott Leadership Group.
• Kenneth Duberstein, who was Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff, partnered with Michael Berman, a former Clinton White House adviser and Democratic conventions organizer.
• Then, there’s the Ogilvy Government Relations lobbying firm – managed by Wayne Berman, a longtime GOP lobbyist who raised money for John McCain – partnering with Democrats like Moses Mercado, a former aide to (former) Democrat Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, and Dean Aguillen, a former staffer with Democrat Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The magazine points out that there are many other examples of once bitter, partisan rivals on C-SPAN, walking away from the House or Senate floors with a wink or a nod for cocktails and cash.
Both political parties do it. Both parties rely on the rest of us, in the words of Charles Kuralt, to be too busy not running for office, not running from the police, and not alienated from society. “Our lives are well filled, our nature is generous, and we are at peace with our neighbors.”
Compare that to a federal government whose life is also well filled, but whose nature is confiscatory, and who is at war with many.
* * *
Lastly, and just for fun, the following public information was made available to me this week upon request:
These city of Hillsboro departments have the following cable and/or satellite television contracts, according to the auditor's office:
• Police Department: Time Warner (Cable package with two additional lines) $60.59 per month, with a price increase of 5 percent starting with the May 2011 billing.
• Fire/Life Squad: Time Warner $50.19 per month, with a price increase of 5 percent starting with the May 2011 billing.
• Sewer Plant: Dish Network $60.99 per month.
• Street Department: Time Warner (no charge).
• Water Plant: Time Warner (no charge).
Now, in addition to the more than $2,000 a year of taxpayers' money for these services, and in addition to the TVs themselves, one has to wonder: How much time does each department watch television while on the clock? Or do they come in after hours to watch TV?
I doesn't know. No one ever paid me to watch television.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]