Thread: Koch Industries takes aim at U.S. House Republican tax reform plan

Wed Dec 7, 2016 | 5:09pm EST

Koch Industries takes aim at U.S. House Republican tax reform plan

By David Morgan | WASHINGTON

Koch Industries, the private conglomerate owned by billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch, warned on Wednesday that a Republican tax reform proposal meant to encourage U.S. exports could have devastating effects on the economy and consumers.

The proposal, known as border adjustability, is part of a larger tax reform plan backed by Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Speaker Paul Ryan. It has attracted the attention of advisers to President-elect Donald Trump as a potential tool for creating manufacturing jobs for blue-collar Americans.

But the provision, which would tax imports while exempting U.S. exports from corporate income tax, has raised concerns in the retailing and energy sectors about its potential effects on prices for imported consumer items and foreign goods used in domestic production.

Corporate lobbyists say that Trump's threatened 35 percent import tax against U.S. companies that move jobs overseas could reflect an interest by the president-elect in a border-adjusted approach to tax reform.

The Trump team and Republicans in Congress are currently trying to hammer out an agreement on tax reform for 2017.

"The proposed border tax adjustment will distort the market, increase consumer prices and create an uneven playing field for companies and consumers," Philip Ellender, who oversees government and public affairs for the Wichita, Kansas-based multinational, said in a statement.

"The long-term consequences to the economy and the American consumer could be devastating," added Ellender, who said Koch otherwise supports tax reform.

Koch is the second largest private U.S. company, with operations that range from refining and chemicals to ranching and forest products. Its owners are known to spend heavily on conservative initiatives and to oppose government intervention in business.

Representative Kevin Brady, Republican chairman of the House tax committee that produced the reform plan, welcomed the Koch statement as feedback but described border adjustability as "a key provision" that would level the playing field for "Made in America" products.

Brady has said the plan would unleash economic and job growth by cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, simplifying the tax code and encouraging investment.

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Border adjustability would help pay for tax cuts by generating $1.2 trillion in revenues over a decade, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.

The provision would also discourage U.S. companies from moving operations abroad as a result of another provision, which would eliminate U.S. taxes on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKBN13W2V2

I support the 35% tariff on imports and any other tax reform that discourages our manufacturing companies from leaving the US including border adjustment taxes if this is what it actually does. I support Trump's reduction of the 35% corporate tax rate to 15% over the House plan to reduce it only to 20%. We need it reduced to Trump's 15%. Higher prices don't bother me at all if it means more jobs and secure jobs for American Workers. The less unemployment, the less poverty, the less welfare spending, which more than makes up for any price increases due to protecting our nation. We don't want to be on the road to the bottom, we want to be on the road to the top, and if that means some inflation, so be it. Look what low inflation has done for US the past 2 decades? It bankrupted US. NO MORE!! GET SMART!!

We actually need the FairTax but Trump's plan as originally proposed before Ryan tried to get him to go with his plan is a great reform plan until the FairTax is passed.

Boot the illegals out. We already pay "higher prices" ... $8 bucks for a head of lettuce, just not at the check out stand. We pay higher prices for car insurance in every illegal infested City.

Illegals cost us One Trillion a year across the board...it comes out of our pockets in taxes paying for them, that is YOUR $8 bucks for a head of lettuce!

Put American's to work at decent wages, off welfare, food stamps and paying taxes. Put the chain gangs to work in the fields!

Not to mention illegals are not paying back into the system, send their billions back over the border in Western Union, not spending the money here.

Trump is right...our politicians are STUPID.

Beezer wrote:

Trump is right...our politicians are STUPID.

That made me laugh out loud, Beezer!! And right you are!!!

Judy...OMG...Michael Moore is on FB wants to disrupt the inauguration, you want to laugh? Read the comments, they are on a roll. Soo funny! Laughing so hard I can't see

Michael Moore calls for protesters to 'disrupt' Trump's inauguration

Published December 07, 2016 FoxNews.com

Michael Moore -- who predicted Donald Trump would win the presidency months before his surprise victory -- is now encouraging people to protest the President-elect's upcoming inauguration.

"Disrupt the Inauguration. The Majority have spoken – by nearly 2.7 million votes &counting! Silence is not an option,” Moore tweeted Wednesday.

Michael Moore
✔
@MMFlint

Disrupt the Inauguration. The Majority have spoken - by nearly 2.7 million votes &counting! Silence is not an option http://www.disruptj20.org/
3:29 AM - 7 Dec 2016
Photo published for Appeasement is violence
Appeasement is violence

Disruptj20 will converge on January 20th and 21st, 2017 to confront white supremacy, patriarchy, LGBTQ hate, ableism and other forms of oppression that is exploited under a capitalist system that has...
disruptj20.org

The liberal filmmaker shared a link to the website for DisruptJ20, a campaign for "a bold mobilization against the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20, 2017."

The website states, "We call on all people of good conscience to join in disrupting the ceremonies. If Trump is to be inaugurated at all, let it happen behind closed doors, showing the true face of the security state Trump will preside over. It must be made clear to the whole world that the vast majority of people in the United States do not support his presidency or consent to his rule."

DisruptJ20 is planning D.C.-based protests on the day of Trump's inauguration, but also asks people to protest on "the streets wherever you are."

The social justice organization also calls for worldwide action.

"If you are living outside the US, you can take action at US embassies, borders, or other symbols of neocolonial power. Our allegiance is not to 'making America great again,' but to all of humanity and the planet. #DisruptJ20."

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment...uguration.html

Wow!! LOL!! I don't even think these people are from the United States. It's the communists and socialists world-wide who think, sadly, that someone still cares what they think. Capitalism is on the move, Americans have re-taken our country, and Trumpism has gone viral world-wide!!

So, if you want to sit on your ass doing anti-American websites planning protests to disrupt the somber inauguration of our new American President while sucking on a check from your socialist/communist government, you're on the wrong planet.