Abusive Taxes Cause Firms, Citizens To Flee U.S.

by JASmius

As the Merovingian once said to Neo, "You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.":

Obama, as promised, is changing America. High taxes and abusive enforcement are compelling businesses and ordinary citizens to leave the country altogether.

The United States has much higher corporate tax rates than other industrialized countries do, and increasingly, the IRS uses more aggressive enforcement tactics than foreign tax authorities use.

The United States stands alone among industrialized countries by requiring U.S. businesses to pay taxes on profits from overseas operations and investments — in addition to the taxes paid to foreign governments....

 [T]he average combined U.S. and foreign tax burden on profits is approximately 30%, whereas the average for foreign rivals is approximately 23%.

Entrepreneurs pay some of the highest tax rates in the world on unincorporated U.S.-based businesses. Regardless of where income is earned, they often pay federal, state and local taxes in excess of 50%, and they must pay both U.S. and foreign taxes on overseas income.

Ordinary citizens permanently living and working abroad also must pay U.S. and foreign taxes and face burdensome dual filing requirements and abusive penalties. U.S. tax laws can impose penalties of more than $1 million on unpaid taxes of as little as $20,000....

The U.S. tax system is so burdensome and arbitrary that a 2013 study undertaken by a European think tank ranked it 94th out of 100 countries, right after Zimbabwe, for its impact on business competitiveness. [emphasis]

Action, reaction.  Wage a war on capitalism, punish profit, demonize success, and capital, business, will flee to more hospitable environs.  The U.S. economic depression will continue, unabated, tax receipts will suffer, and conditions will continue to all around suck.

Now it would, one surmises, instantly occur to a "pragmatist," which King Hussein insists he is, that punitively confiscatory taxation and anti-capitalist jihads are not producing the end results he claims to seek - jobs, economic growth, more tax revenue.  And, accordingly, one would suppose that such a "pragmatist" - which False Messiah insists he is - would reverse policy course and move toward cutting individual and corporate tax rates, loosening the regulatory stranglehold he's got on the U.S. economy, and otherwise resurrecting Reaganomics.  Because that is, after all, "what works".  And The One insists that he's all about "what works".

But....no.  When U.S. businesses try to escape Red Barry's economic East Berlin, he sends his minions to recapture them instead - in the name of "patriotism":

Jonathan Alter at the Daily Beast has an idea that will infuse the president’s “economic patriotism” rhetoric with some bite: Compel companies to take “loyalty oaths” to prove their patriotism. 

You may find this suggestion a little creepy, maybe even a little fascistic; but Alter says that “it’s time for red-blooded Americans to take matters into our own hands.” 

And by taking the matter into “our” hands, Alter means that President Obama would unilaterally bar any company that practices “inversion” – corporate merging with foreign firms to save on U.S. tax bills – from doing business with the federal government. Companies that follow the administration requirements will earn a government seal of approval. If you act “un-American” and fail to recognize your “real interests” and those of the United States – which are, naturally, indistinguishable from the president’s agenda – you will be shunned and your business punished.

You will be powerless to stop it.

Patriotism is a love of country as it is.  It is not supposed to be a politicized concept.  But there is nothing that the Obamunist Left does not politicize.  So if you commit the unpardonable "sin" of pursuing your own economic "happiness" instead of toeing the Obamunist party line, you are an "un-American" enemy of the state and will be severely "disciplined" for your disloyalty.  Because, as is the founding principle of any totalitarian state, the country and its ruler are one; a "patriotic American" bends over, grabs his ankles, takes it to the hilt, ignores the ensuing anal seepage running down the backs of his thighs, turns around, bows down, and asks for more opportunities to offer his passive, gratitudinous service to his "benevolent benefactor."  Once his service "port" is cleaned up, at least.

Last word to Mr. Harsanyi:

Ah, properly channeled national[social]ism. You see, when you do it it’s just a bunch of dangerous jingoist rubbish. When we do it … America! And after five years of conflating patriotism and left-wing economic policy, you are expected to treat a completely legal tax designation as an attack on the homeland. Unless, of course, you’re a seditious weasel who’s betting against America.

In which case you may just....disappear.  "Accidents" do happen, you know.

Trust me, gentles: Barack Obama will, indeed, build a border fence.  But it will be to keep citizens in, not illegals out.