Last weekend, the Biden administration said that they are considering raising taxes to pay for an infrastructure bill. What? The country is still trying to recover from the pandemic and he floats this trial balloon less than a month before April 15th. Part of his plan is to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. Corporations don’t pay taxes, people pay taxes with increased costs on consumer goods and services. That’s assuming a corporation stays in the United States. Canada has a 15 percent corporate tax rate which means that raising the U.S. rate to 28 percent will entice businesses to leave through a process called inversion. Burger King “inverted” in 2014 when the country’s corporate tax rate was much higher, so there’s history of this happening. Stay tuned, we’ll have more on these tax increases in the coming weeks.
Photo by Shuttershock
TPA’s Ten-Year Anniversary
It was 10 years ago this week that the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) was created and I took the helm of the organization. I had been at another taxpayer group for 18 years and decided to embark on my own. My goal was to build a rapid response taxpayer group. I remember sitting in the small and cold (it was March and the heat was broken for the first two weeks) Alexandria (Virginia) office wondering what I had just done. I left a very comfortable job to start a new organization. I had a little bit of seed money, but the rest was on me. After setting up my e-mail and the other administrative jobs, I started to get to work. I didn’t know exactly where to start so I started calling friends in the taxpayer movement to see if there were any coalition letters I could sign. I scoured the internet to look for juicy government waste stories to write about. One of the first blogs I posted was about earmarks in the NASA budget. With talk of earmarks coming back, it just shows that some things just don’t change. I had many sleepless nights worrying about every aspect of the new organization. The biggest part of my stress was fundraising and making sure I had enough money to survive. Again, some things don’t change.
From Defense spending to entitlements, TPA has written about so many issues in the past 10 years. TPA has written about local, state, federal, and international issues always speaking for taxpayers and consumers. The people that I’ve met over the years both domestically and internationally have inspired me and kept me motivated. Over that last 10 years, TPA has been mentioned thousands of times in the media. I have personally written more than 500 Weekly Updates (that’s a whole lot of puns you’ve had to endure). What I am most proud of (and thankful for) are my friends, supporters, and the people that have worked at TPA over the years. For two years, I did everything by myself. I was the fundraiser, the policy wonk, the media guy, the IT guy, and the guy who cleaned the office. In 2013, I hired my first full time person. Since then, people have come and gone. It has been an interesting crew…to say the least. The folks that have worked at TPA have shared my vision and I am very appreciative of that. The current staff at TPA is an amazing crew that is dedicated and hard working.
We have a lot of work to do and I am looking forward to another ten years (at least) serving taxpayers and consumers. And, as my VP of Policy Patrick Hedger says, we are here to call balls and strikes and not be political or advancing a political agenda.
GOP Votes to Bring Back Earmarks
The same year that TPA was founded was the year that a ban on earmarks took place. On Wednesday (the same week as TPA was founded), the House GOP conference voted to bring back earmarks. This is an embarrassing and shameful vote for Republicans. With this vote bringing back earmarks, the GOP has given up on being the party of fiscal responsibility. Earmarks are corrupt giveaways that unnecessarily burden American taxpayers. Former members of Congress including Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham (R-Calif.) were sent to jail for accepting bribes to secure earmarks. Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff also spent time in jail in connection with earmarks promised to clients. When earmarks are allowed, corruption and convictions soon follow. Former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) called earmarks are the ‘gateway drug to a spending addiction.’ He was 100 percent correct.
Some of the most egregious examples of earmarks include: $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa; $500,000 for a teapot museum; and $100,000 for the Tiger Woods Foundation. The party of “draining the swamp” just opened the floodgates to fill it. We urge members of the Republican Conference to remember their promises to voters and to work in their best interests instead of saddling them with more debt in service of a narrow political agenda. Republicans who voted to bring back earmarks should be ashamed of themselves and are obviously more concerned about their own power rather than the fiscal well-being of the country.
Some think tankers have opined that bringing back earmarks will help grease the skids on major pieces of legislation. That is not a good thing considering that Congress may be looking to pass a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure bill that could be loaded up with earmarks.
BLOGS:
Monday: Lessons Learned: Vaccine Development and Distribution
Tuesday: Utility Company Trying to Suck Energy Out of Florida Economic Boom
Wednesday: Taxpayer Watchdog Slams GOP for Bringing Back Earmarks
Wednesday: California Net Neutrality Law Says If You Like Your Plan, You Can’t Keep It
Friday: Now is No Time to Raise Taxes
MEDIA:
March 14, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about the latest COVID relief bill.
March 15, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about how much money the state of Maryland would be receiving through the latest COVID relief bill.
March 16, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Now is no time to raise taxes.”
March 16, 2021: Patrick appeared on NBCLX to discuss the recent jobless claims.
March 16, 2021: KWTO (Springfield, IL) Happy Hour w/ Nate Lucus interviewed Patrick about the COVID relief bill waste.
March 16, 2021: WCTI News Channel 12 (New Bern, N.C.) quoted TPA in their story, “GOP lawmakers raise concerns that Biden's relief plan policies may become permanent.”
March 17, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Financial transaction tax is a solution in search of a problem.”
March 18, 2021: I appeared on WBOB 600 AM (Jacksonville, Fla.) to talk about the potential return of earmarks.
March 18, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about President Biden’s latest plan to raise taxes.
Have a great weekend!
Best,
David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
1401 K Street, NW
Suite 502
Washington, D.C. xxxxxx
www.protectingtaxpayers.org
