UPDATE: The DSCC brings it home:
It’s a well-worn tool, but GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer says it works great on just about everything, like when all you have is a hammer. Tax cuts as part of the solution to the financial crisis. Sounds fine, we’re already borrowing so many hundreds of billions of dollars that who the hell cares, right?
But tax breaks for companies that offshore American jobs? You might wonder how that’s going to help anybody.
As the Rocky Mountain News reports:
Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer agree that major changes must be made to the proposed economic bailout package, but Colorado’s U.S. Senate candidates differ wildly on what those alterations must be.
Udall, the Democratic congressman from Eldorado Springs, said he can only back legislation that concentrates more on helping average Americans and less on helping big Wall Street firms. He wants to add measures to keep people who are on the brink of foreclosure in their homes and to set a time limit on how long the government will buy bad assets from private companies.
Schaffer, the former Republican congressman from Fort Collins, says a $700 billion package focused only on the government buying risky assets and providing bailout money will drive inflation through the roof. Congress must add economy-stimulating measures such as a reduction in investment taxes and a holiday on the repatriation tax to avoid a complete recession, he said.
Both men agree something must be done, however. Even Schaffer, who is usually in favor of keeping government out of the free market, said that because Congress has made this mess, it has to dig itself out.
Once again, Schaffer responds to a legitimate question with a bizarre and tangential idea that opens up new and much more pointed questions. The Udall campaign jumped all over Schaffer’s suggestion of a “repatriation tax holiday” to keep help solve the economic crisis in a press release (follows).
Says Udall, “Even in the face of all this, Bob Schaffer today said the solution to our problem is a giant tax giveaway for American companies that ship jobs overseas. It’s stunning, but maybe it shouldn’t be. It’s exactly this kind of thinking that got us into this economic crisis to begin with.”
For Immediate Release
Contact: Tara Trujillo
SEPTEMBER 25, 2008 303.820.2008 (o)
720.333.3425 (c)UDALL CHALLENGES “STUNNING” SCHAFFER RESPONSE TO ECONOMIC CRISIS
Schaffer Plan: More Tax Breaks for Companies That Ship Jobs OverseasCongressman and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall held a press conference call today in response to his opponent Bob Schaffer’s proposal to address the economic crisis by giving a massive tax break to companies that ship American jobs overseas.
“Today we have a seen a defining moment in this Senate race, and a defining contrast between Bob Schaffer and me on the most critical issue facing our country today,” said Udall. “Our priorities have been made clear, and they could not be more different.”
“For years, folks like Bob Schaffer and the Bush Administration have been telling us that the key to economic success is giving the CEOs whatever they ask for. But what that’s really meant was no oversight and no accountability. Because of their policies, and because of the greed, abuse, and bad decisions those policies have allowed on Wall Street, we now face the greatest economic crisis of our generation.
“Even in the face of all this, Bob Schaffer today said the solution to our problem is a giant tax giveaway for American companies that ship jobs overseas. It’s stunning, but maybe it shouldn’t be.
“It’s exactly this kind of thinking that got us into this economic crisis to begin with.”
In today’s Rocky Mountain News, Schaffer responded to the nation’s economic crisis by calling for a “holiday” on the repatriation tax that is applied to American companies who shift jobs and investment overseas to avoid paying corporate taxes. Such a holiday would reward off-shoring companies with a windfall worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
“I’ve been working hard to ensure that any response we make to this crisis includes strong accountability, no ‘golden parachutes’ for the corporate executives who got us into this mess, protection for taxpayers, and help for Main Street families and businesses,” Udall added. “We should be doing right by the people who have been working hard and playing by the rules.
“Bob Schaffer made it clear today that, even in an economic crisis, those aren’t the people he’s looking out for.
“He’s going to keep fighting for the same failed economic policies that put CEOs and corporate special interests ahead of Colorado’s middle-class families and small businesses. I’m going to keep fighting to make this economy work for all of us again.”
###
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: JohnNorthofDenver
IN: DNC Grand Finale Promises Something Special
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Rep. Brandi Bradley Desperate To Start Her Very Own Culture War
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Here’s a Smart Idea for Avoiding Another Round of Dumb Hostage-Taking on Policy Issues
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Thursday Open Thread
BY: harrydoby
IN: Russia Ready To Process Your MAGAsylum Claims, Says Alex Jones
BY: Chickenheed
IN: Here’s a Smart Idea for Avoiding Another Round of Dumb Hostage-Taking on Policy Issues
BY: Conserv. Head Banger
IN: Gabe Evans Puts His Training at a Far-Right Christian College Into Action
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Here’s a Smart Idea for Avoiding Another Round of Dumb Hostage-Taking on Policy Issues
BY: spaceman2021
IN: Rep. Brandi Bradley Desperate To Start Her Very Own Culture War
BY: Colorado Pols
IN: Here’s a Smart Idea for Avoiding Another Round of Dumb Hostage-Taking on Policy Issues
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
At least he’s honest about his political viewpoint. It’s a horrible viewpoint, but he does own it and kudos for the honesty.
It’s your birthday, that doesn’t mean you have to go all soft on us. This isn’t a morality play, it’s a policy debate for Christs sake.
Here, take this tax policy quiz….it’s kinda fun. Don’t say I never gave you a birthday present:-)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics…
That post was intended as very subtle snark. But clearly it didn’t work as intended.
That the sweatshops of the Marianas Islands should be the model for US Immigration policy. What a great guy, kudos for his honesty.
Kudos for his honesty that he’s a renewable energy executive.
Kudos for his honesty concerning all the scandals he is mixed up in.
Kudos for his honesty about using his school board vote to benefit his donors.
Kudos for his honesty about cutting an oil deal in Iraq against the state departments wishes.
I mean really? Schaffer is a lot of things, honest is not one of them.
He brought up the Marianas Islands. He’s constantly discussed drilling our way out of our energy problems. He just brought up this.
They’re all bad for his campaign. But a lot of Schaffer’s shooting himself in the foot is giving relatively honest answers.
Yes he lies on lots of stuff. But he also gives us all these nice presents with those honestr answers.
From the RMN – “Even Schaffer, who is usually in favor of keeping government out of the free market, said that because Congress has made this mess, it has to dig itself out.”
Precisely. Members of the House and Senate, plus Bush and members of his Administration should put together a pot of their own personal funds to bail out Wall Street. If they had to do this, they might think twice in the future about their laissez-faire attitude toward regulating the market.
what caused the crisis or what it has become.
Schaffer is a moron and has no place in government if he believes we need “keep government out of the free market.” Though he might like it to be, this isn’t the robber-baron era where we bow to down to our feudal lords while the rape and pillage our land and homes.
Mr. Schaffer is just spouting the Republican mantra that tax cuts are the solution to every economic problem. Republicans claim that taxes can never be raised under any circumstances and they cite the Reagan tax cuts in 1981 as the prime example. Some go so far to say the Reagan tax cuts were responsible for the 1990’s economic boom. That of course ignores the fact that Reagan approved huge tax increases in 1986 (he called them revenue enhancements), as well as, the Bush tax increase in 1990 and the tax increase sheperded through Congress by President Clinton and we still had the boom of the 1990’s.
The real motive here has nothing to do with the Wall Street meltdown or the proposed bailout. The Republicans are intentionhally attempting to starve the government to death by decreasing the tax base and running up the deficit while simultaneously blaming the federal government for being a spendthrift institution. Mr. Schaffer is just one of the mindless Republicans whose primary goal is to destroy the government by making it ineffective, then blaming it for ineffectiveness and consequently undermining the public’s confidence in our public institutions. Even though they hang the mantle of conservatism around their neck, these people are not conservatives by any normal definition. They are radical extremists bent on undermining our public institutions and consequently our way of life. They do not represent a return to first principles. Mr. Schaffer and his ilk represent a return to a past that never existed.
About 2,500 years ago… And it does exist today – in Somalia.
It’s hard, of course, to equate current economic info with back when, but that is my impression. Up during war time, for sure.
And most of those taxes were tariffs.