Republicans Defeat the ‘Stop Outsourcing of American Jobs’ Amendment
When the House Ways and Means Committee debated the GOP tax bill yesterday, Republicans voted down the “Stop Outsourcing of American Jobs” amendment offered by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas).
The “Stop Outsourcing of American Jobs” amendment would require that multinational corporations looking to invest offshore pay the same tax rate as small businesses or domestic companies investing here in America. The amendment was defeated on a party-line vote, with 16 Democrats voting in favor and 23 Republicans voting against.
This is what Rep. Doggett had to say in support of his amendment:
“President Trump has made stopping the outsourcing of American jobs a central element of his promise to the American people. Unfortunately, like his promise to have Mexico pay for his unnecessary wall, it’s very much a broken promise.
“It is flat wrong that the corner pharmacy should have to pay a rate that is substantially higher on its operations than Pfizer on its operations. My amendment ensures that both are treated the same way—that we tax profits earned abroad the same way that they are taxed here at home.
“All my amendment does is treat people who earn profits abroad the same way as those who earn profits at home. We’re not against profits; we’re not against maximizing profits; just pay your fair share. When you set up a system, as has been done in this bill, that creates one rate abroad that could be zero and at home it is 20 percent, guess where this money is going to flow? It will flow out of America, just like the jobs will flow out of America.
“If you believe in keeping our jobs at home, and believe we have lost too many already, don’t create a system that the only jobs that it will add are more tax lawyers and more CPAs to find ways to dodge taxes. They have dodged enough. They have dodged $100 billion a year.”
Under the Republican tax bill, a small business that creates jobs on Main Street USA would pay U.S. taxes on its profits at a rate of 20%, while a big corporation that outsources those same jobs to Ireland or Switzerland would pay NO U.S. TAXES on the profits it earns from outsourcing. The Doggett amendment would apply the same U.S. tax rate to profits from outsourced operations and domestic operations.
Reducing the U.S. tax rate on offshore profits to 0%—which is basically a subsidy to companies that outsource jobs—would cost $205 billion over 10 years. Even worse, the GOP tax bill would encourage foreign countries that want to attract offshore investment to lower their corporate tax rate or to create tax-free export processing zones. The more other countries lower their corporate tax rates to attract offshore investment, the bigger the tax subsidy for offshoring this bill will provide. The GOP tax bill creates a powerful incentive for big companies to outsource jobs, and it is an incentive that will grow over time.
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Reposted from AFL-CIO
