Rand Paul at Caterpillar tax hearing: We should give them an award

[tsai3904]

Video (at 2:10:57):
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/hearings/caterpillars-offshore-tax-strategy

[angelatc]

http://www.mail.com/news/politics/2753060-sen-paul-caterpillar-award-tax-strategy.html#.2710-stage-set3-2


Caterpillar has avoided paying $2.4 billion in U.S. taxes since 2000 by shifting profits to a wholly-controlled affiliate in Switzerland, according to a report released by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Levin chairs the Senate investigations subcommittee. On Tuesday, Levin grilled Caterpillar executives and their accountants at a hearing on the company's tax strategy.

"Caterpillar is an American success story that produces iconic industrial machines," Levin said. "But it is also a member of the corporate profit-shifting club that has transferred billions of dollars offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes."

Julie Lagacy, a Caterpillar vice president, was adamant that the Peoria, Ill.-based manufacturer follows all tax laws. "We pay everything we owe," she told the subcommittee. Caterpillar got support from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who questioned why the subcommittee was even holding the hearing.

"I think rather than having an inquisition, we should probably bring Caterpillar here and give them an award," Paul said. "You know, they've been in business for over 100 years. It's not easy to stay in business."

[Anti Federalist]

Good for Rand.

I concur.

CAT is one of those companies that does create good paying middle class jobs.

They will cease to do so if they get dragged before too many Inquisitions like this.

[tod evans]

Get the suits away from Cat!

:mad:

[jtap]

Funny they don't get that if they push too far Cat can transfer 100% of their billions instead of just what they have moved so far.

Why have this meeting? Just move the goalposts (laws) as they normally do and then Cat will find the loopholes left by the idiots...rinse and repeat. /[atlas]shrug[ged]

[eduardo89]

Caterpillar makes a lot of money selling armoured bulldozers to Israel so they can kick Palestinians out of their homes. Israeli settlers need more Lebensraum, after all.

http://shalomrav.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/catposter1.jpg

[mad cow]

Good for Rand.

I concur.

CAT is one of those companies that does create good paying middle class jobs.

They will cease to do so if they get dragged before too many Inquisitions like this.

On at least three levels.People working for CAT,mechanics working on CATS and people using CAT diesel powered engines and equipment for their jobs are solidly middle class or better,in my experience.

[tod evans]

Caterpillar makes a lot of money selling armoured bulldozers to Israel so they can kick Palestinians out of their homes.

Hey I'm sure Cat would be delighted to sell their bulldozers to the Palestinians too......

[RonPaulFanInGA]

Caterpillar makes a lot of money selling armoured bulldozers to Israel so they can kick Palestinians out of their homes. Israeli settlers need more Lebensraum, after all.

Seems like good business to me. Why shouldn't they sell in Israel?

[eduardo89]

Seems like good business to me. Why shouldn't they sell in Israel?

I prefer to support a company with morals.

[tod evans]

I prefer to support a company with morals.

And what's the likelihood you'll be purchasing a bulldozer?

[edit]

Boeing and Colt have provided more equipment used to actually kill and yet I hear no outcry over their marketing...

In fact I'm willing to bet that you patronize the Boeing company on a regular basis by flying in their aircraft....

Companies make "stuff" and their goal is to sell that stuff for a profit.

No company I'm aware of that manufactures equipment has potential customers fill out political agenda questionnaires before engaging in business....

[eduardo89]

And what's the likelihood you'll be purchasing a bulldozer?

Very likely, my family owns 6 mines.

[tod evans]

Very likely, my family owns 6 mines.

Um, hmmmm.........:rolleyes:

Look to Komatzu then...

[mad cow]

Very likely, my family owns 6 mines.

Picks and shovels then.Think how good that would be for the unemployment rate.

[limequat]

I love these hearings with Rand.

I also loved the awkward silence after he finished his spiel. Bunch of suits going WTF just happened?

[AuH20]

Carl Levin cracks me up.

[Spikender]

The vampires running the Government just can't stand to see even a pint of blood avoid their fangs, can they?

[jjdoyle]

Caterpillar makes a lot of money selling armoured bulldozers to Israel so they can kick Palestinians out of their homes. Israeli settlers need more Lebensraum, after all.

FWIW, the Israeli military is the one that equips them with the armor, not Caterpillar. At least, from what I understand. Is that not right?
They buy a regular bulldozer, then the Israeli military gets them and "up-armors" them with their own armor/equipment.

[56ktarget]

So now rand is supporting tax evasion? LOL please nominate this guy for the republican ticket... Im looking forward to a hillary landslide...

[tod evans]

So now you rand is supporting tax evasion? LOL please nominate this guy for the republican ticket... Im looking forward to a hillary landslide...

Ban in 3-2-1.................

[Barrex]

So now rand is supporting tax evasion? LOL please nominate this guy for the republican ticket... Im looking forward to a hillary landslide...
Hi. Why are you on this forum?


Ban in 3-2-1.................

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I can we keep him please!?. PLEASE.

[MRK]

Very likely, my family owns 6 mines.

Have you defused them yet?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO7dYVSe0xY

Edit:

I just looked up the guy who does this. Here's a great write-up of his story:

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/aki-ra.html




He served the Khmer Army for nearly ten years, working on this massive mine-laying project while dudes jammed AK-47s in his back and ordered him around.

The UN trained Aki in the proper application of protective bomb-proof armor, mine detector operation, and sweep-and-clear removal processes for dealing with dense fields of high explosives, but when those guys left town, Aki realized he didn't have very much in the way of money or equipment.

The head-smashing ridiculousness of what this guy is doing is only further demonstrated by the fact that this human bomb-clearing robot can dig out, clear, and defuse a standard land mine in about two minutes – a process that usually takes the United Nations bomb teams something more on the order of one to two hours.

From 1994 to 2007, Aki Ra grabbed a shovel, a stick, and a knife and personally went out into the jungles of the densely-populated Siam Reap region of Cambodia to remove Soviet, Chinese, and Vietnamese-constructed land mines.

Thanks in no small part to the work of this one man, the number of accidental landmine casualties in Cambodia dropped from 3,047 to 1,109 in the three-year span from 1996 to 1999.

He now has a team of over 1,000 people working in de-mining operations across the country, and claims that in the 16 years he has been on the job he's personally removed and cleared over 50,000 mines by himself.

Eventually Aki Ra had removed so many landmines that his house was overflowing with the shit, so in 1998 he opened the Cambodian Landmine Museum as a place to displace the unexploded ordinance and educate people on how much landmines seriously suck balls.

When he's not running a successful non-governmental organization, curating the museum, or flexing his pulsating iron ballsack, Aki Ra also takes in homeless, (often-times drug-addicted) local kids who have had appendages blown off by land mines and provides them with adequate food, shelter, and education. Aki provides for his twenty-plus "children" by going out into the jungles and hunting wild boars with a crossbow. I wish I was making this shit up.

[MRK]

. . . .

[Cdn_for_liberty]

So now rand is supporting tax evasion? LOL please nominate this guy for the republican ticket... Im looking forward to a hillary landslide...

it's tax avoidance actually and it's legal.

[lib3rtarian]

So now rand is supporting tax evasion? LOL please nominate this guy for the republican ticket... Im looking forward to a hillary landslide...

Tax evasion is when you don't pay the taxes you owe. This is illegal and you go to jail.

Tax avoidance is when you use the legal loopholes and reduce your tax burden as much as you can. Most sane people do this at a personal level via 401Ks, IRAs, HSAs, charitable donations etc.

If it's socially acceptable for an individual to avoid taxes, why is it unacceptable for a company to do so? Or do you think a company should just break even and give away all their profits to the government? Would you invest in such a company? Would you allow your 401K administrator to invest in it?

Are you a libertarian (meaning you understand the fundamental principles of liberty and free markets), or just here to troll?

[twomp]

So now rand is supporting tax evasion? LOL please nominate this guy for the republican ticket... Im looking forward to a hillary landslide...

LOL use a dictionary please. Any one representing the GOP would be against taxes genius. I hope Hillary faces Rand as well lol. That warmonger will get crushed.

[amy31416]

Hey I'm sure Cat would be delighted to sell their bulldozers to the Palestinians too......

Willing to bet that's illegal, or would be if the Palestinians could afford them and used them for similar purposes. GE used to do business with Iran, now that's illegal, and despite their press releases, they would like to do business with Iran.

[Deborah K]

Well, if you like the Council on Foreign Relations, then you'll love Caterpillar. The CEO is on the board of directors for the CFR.

[tod evans]

Komatsu is the other dozer manufacturer that puts out quality equipment and there's no telling what politics their board of directors support..

If I ever have need to purchase a new dozer (damned unlikely!) I'd support the folks working at Cat in spite of the suits political affiliations...

[Deborah K]

FTR: My husband is a master mechanic, and he specializes in Caterpillar heavy machinery. He can diagnose and fix anything to do with their machines. He's been doing it for 25 years. And I should add, he's a dying breed.

We're not happy with the fact that Caterpillar has aligned itself with those who would advance global governance. But me thinks it is a train that has already left the station.