Obama To Declare War on Cayman Islands, Bermuda
By Bob Bauman
O.K., so the headline isn’t exactly accurate, but it did catch your eye. And if one David Cay Johnston has his perverse way, it would be a statement of fact.
Indeed, Johnston seriously calls for a U.S. declaration of war not only on the Cayman Islands, but also Bermuda and other offshore tax havens. His lengthy radical views are set out in an article ("Fiscal Therapy") in the Jan-Feb 2009 issue of the left-leaning magazine Mother Jones, known for investigative reporting with a decidedly radical slant.
Ordinarily a nutty proposal such as Johnston's could be laughed off as evidence of a sick sense of humor or an advanced mental problem, but Johnston is not your run of the mill left-wing nut.
Prize Winning Radical
In 2001 Johnston won a Pulitzer Prize "for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code."
At the time he was the tax reporter for The New York Times, and now is a columnist for the trade journal, Tax Notes. In 2008 he left The Times after 14 years and has since been hawking books he authored with titles such as his current tome, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else and the scintillating Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill).
The Liberal Conspiracy
I've never held much stock in conspiracy theories, especially as they apply to the American news media and what one might call the “U.S. leftist elite.”
These condescending liberals are always certain they know better than the common man. They don't need to conspire among themselves. Knee-jerk liberals know automatically what the leftist party line is at any given moment: big government, more regulation and control, higher taxes, and welfare state economics are all second nature to them. Mention an issue and they always parrot the left-wing party line.
Johnston's Bilge
In 2001, I wrote the following: "In many ways a classic example of this is The New York Times. More particularly, its highly biased 'reporter,' David Cay Johnston. I've been reading his 'reporting' bilge for years and he never misses a chance to dump on people of wealth, U.S. corporations or, his special ‘bete noir’, tax havens and the offshore financial world in general."
At that time in 2001, Johnson was engaged in a multi-article smear against American corporations that legally moved offshore to reduce high U.S. taxes and to increase shareholder equity value and dividends. He twisted facts to claim the true reason for these offshore moves was fattening corporate salaries.
Unfortunately this sort of class warfare is good for sensational, if false, headlines that stir up controversy. Democrats in the U.S. Congress, such as Michigan Senator Carl Levin, have used the manufactured issue of offshore tax havens to claim Republicans favor "big business" at the expense of that mythical "little man." Johnston's slanted reporting at The Times was a precursor to Senator Barack Obama's "Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act" S. 681, first introduced in 2007.
I'm not going to bore you again with the economics or the facts about tax havens, but we should all recognize: 1) the Big Lie for what it is, and; 2) those charlatans who habitually seek to hoodwink the American people into surrendering our financial freedoms.
Johnston’s War
But I'll let Johnston speak for his radical self. The following is a direct quote from his Mother Jones article - and, based on his past statements, I don't think he is kidding:
Invade the Caymans!
In 1983 just 10% of America's corporate profits were funneled through places that charge little or no corporate income tax; today more than 25% of profits go through tax havens. The Obama administration could tell the Caymans – now fifth in the world in bank deposits – to repeal its bank secrecy laws or be invaded; since the island nation's total armed forces consists of about 300 police officers, it shouldn't be hard for technicians and auditors, accompanied by a few Marines, to fly in and seize all the records. Bermuda, which relies on the Royal Navy for its military, could be next, and so on. Long before we get to Switzerland and Luxembourg, their governments should have gotten the message.
Barring gunboat diplomacy (tempting as it is), there is no reason we cannot pass laws to block financial transactions with tax havens or even, Cuba-style, make it a crime for Americans to visit or do business with them without special permission. Congress could declare the hiding of funds a threat to national security and require that anyone with offshore assets disclose them to the IRS within 30 days and pay taxes, interest, and penalties within 180 days. For the holdouts, temporary special teams in the IRS and Justice Department could speedily pursue civil or criminal charges.
By Bob Bauman
O.K., so the headline isn’t exactly accurate, but it did catch your eye. And if one David Cay Johnston has his perverse way, it would be a statement of fact.
Indeed, Johnston seriously calls for a U.S. declaration of war not only on the Cayman Islands, but also Bermuda and other offshore tax havens. His lengthy radical views are set out in an article ("Fiscal Therapy") in the Jan-Feb 2009 issue of the left-leaning magazine Mother Jones, known for investigative reporting with a decidedly radical slant.
Ordinarily a nutty proposal such as Johnston's could be laughed off as evidence of a sick sense of humor or an advanced mental problem, but Johnston is not your run of the mill left-wing nut.
Prize Winning Radical
In 2001 Johnston won a Pulitzer Prize "for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code."
At the time he was the tax reporter for The New York Times, and now is a columnist for the trade journal, Tax Notes. In 2008 he left The Times after 14 years and has since been hawking books he authored with titles such as his current tome, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else and the scintillating Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill).
The Liberal Conspiracy
I've never held much stock in conspiracy theories, especially as they apply to the American news media and what one might call the “U.S. leftist elite.”
These condescending liberals are always certain they know better than the common man. They don't need to conspire among themselves. Knee-jerk liberals know automatically what the leftist party line is at any given moment: big government, more regulation and control, higher taxes, and welfare state economics are all second nature to them. Mention an issue and they always parrot the left-wing party line.
Johnston's Bilge
In 2001, I wrote the following: "In many ways a classic example of this is The New York Times. More particularly, its highly biased 'reporter,' David Cay Johnston. I've been reading his 'reporting' bilge for years and he never misses a chance to dump on people of wealth, U.S. corporations or, his special ‘bete noir’, tax havens and the offshore financial world in general."
At that time in 2001, Johnson was engaged in a multi-article smear against American corporations that legally moved offshore to reduce high U.S. taxes and to increase shareholder equity value and dividends. He twisted facts to claim the true reason for these offshore moves was fattening corporate salaries.
Unfortunately this sort of class warfare is good for sensational, if false, headlines that stir up controversy. Democrats in the U.S. Congress, such as Michigan Senator Carl Levin, have used the manufactured issue of offshore tax havens to claim Republicans favor "big business" at the expense of that mythical "little man." Johnston's slanted reporting at The Times was a precursor to Senator Barack Obama's "Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act" S. 681, first introduced in 2007.
I'm not going to bore you again with the economics or the facts about tax havens, but we should all recognize: 1) the Big Lie for what it is, and; 2) those charlatans who habitually seek to hoodwink the American people into surrendering our financial freedoms.
Johnston’s War
But I'll let Johnston speak for his radical self. The following is a direct quote from his Mother Jones article - and, based on his past statements, I don't think he is kidding:
Invade the Caymans!
In 1983 just 10% of America's corporate profits were funneled through places that charge little or no corporate income tax; today more than 25% of profits go through tax havens. The Obama administration could tell the Caymans – now fifth in the world in bank deposits – to repeal its bank secrecy laws or be invaded; since the island nation's total armed forces consists of about 300 police officers, it shouldn't be hard for technicians and auditors, accompanied by a few Marines, to fly in and seize all the records. Bermuda, which relies on the Royal Navy for its military, could be next, and so on. Long before we get to Switzerland and Luxembourg, their governments should have gotten the message.
Barring gunboat diplomacy (tempting as it is), there is no reason we cannot pass laws to block financial transactions with tax havens or even, Cuba-style, make it a crime for Americans to visit or do business with them without special permission. Congress could declare the hiding of funds a threat to national security and require that anyone with offshore assets disclose them to the IRS within 30 days and pay taxes, interest, and penalties within 180 days. For the holdouts, temporary special teams in the IRS and Justice Department could speedily pursue civil or criminal charges.
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