Aa
Motion to Proceed to Consideration of "The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act." Needs 60 votes to allow bill to be debated.
Mon Sep 27, 2010 at 05:04:41 AM PDT
SEN. HARRY REID IS PREPARING FOR A PROCEDURAL WAR AGAINST THE REPULICANS
What: Live Quorum Call, Motion to Proceed to Consideration of "The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act." Needs 60 votes to allow bill to be debated.
When: September 27, 2010 (tonight), 7:00 p.m. EST (barring usual delays)
Where: Senate, C-Span 2
Who: Majority of Senators (Distinguished and Not So Distinguished)
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I am hoping that Nancy Pelosi will be able to break the impasse over voting on the Bush tax cuts. In the meantime, the Senate will vote tonight on an equally powerful wedge issue: outsourcing of jobs. Republicans will be on record for their votes.
So far, little attention has been paid to this event. For such a defining issue, it leaves me wondering - but not puzzled.
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Live Quorum Calls are rare. The last one, on March 25, 2010, was to get Republican Senators to vote on extension of unemployment benefits. The live quorum call forces a majority of senators to come to the floor to debate and vote on a bill. "If a quorum fails to vote, the Senate can, by motion, direct its sergeant at arms to compel the attendance of absent Senators or even to arrest absentees in order to establish a quorum." - CRS Report for Congress
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The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act (S. 3816)
Sponsors: Introduced by Sen. **** Durbin, and Co-Sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Byron Dorgan, Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy, Sheldon Whitehouse and Charles Schumer.
THE BILL creates a payroll tax break for companies that hire U.S. workers in place of foreign workers. It would also raise taxes for companies that move jobs and plants overseas.
This issue distinguishes, with precision, differences between Democrats' and Republicans' economic goals and beliefs. What more of a wedge issue could be divined? As well, outsourcing is an hugely populist issue. It was the number one item of voter interest under the jobs section of an infamous Republican website:
‘America Speaking Out’ Against Republican Proposals On Republican Website
House Republicans have proudly touted their America Speaking Out website — which allows visitors to suggest and vote on various policy prescriptions — as a new and innovative way to involve the American people in the democratic process and the creation of federal policy ... But Republicans might want to look at what’s garnering interest on their own site, as the proposal receiving the most "interest" (and the second highest number of overall votes) in the job creation section is to "stop the outsourcing of jobs from America to other countries that do not pay taxes into the U.S. and stop the tax breaks that are given to these companies that are outsourcing.
Think Progress
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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/27/905502/-There-Will-Be-War-Tonight:-Against-the-Republicans
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Though I can't find the source, I've also heard it reported (on TV, I think) that outsourcing American jobs polls higher in disapproval than tax cuts for the wealthy.
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THE BILL HAS THREE BROAD OBJECTIVES:
1. Incentive to Create American Jobs
Encourage businesses to create jobs in the United States. It provides businesses with relief from the employer share of the Social Security payroll tax on wages paid to new U.S. employees performing services in the United States. To be eligible, businesses must certify that the U.S. employee is replacing an employee who had been performing similar duties overseas.
2. Disincentive to Moving American Jobs Overseas
Ends Subsidies for Plant Closing Costs. The bill eliminates subsidies that U.S. taxpayers provide to firms that move facilities offshore. It prohibits a firm from taking any deduction, loss or credit for amounts paid in connection with reducing or ending the operation of a trade or business in the U.S. and starting or expanding a similar trade or business overseas.
3. End Tax Break for Runaway Plants
The bill ends the federal tax subsidy that rewards U.S. firms that move their production overseas. Under current law, U.S. companies can defer paying U.S. tax on income earned by their foreign subsidiaries until that income is brought back to the United States. This is known as "deferral." Deferral has the effect of putting these firms at a competitive advantage over U.S. firms that hire U.S. workers to make products in the United States. The bill repeals deferral for companies that reduce or close a trade or business in the U.S. and start or expand a similar business overseas for the purpose of importing their products for sale in the United States.
Link: No Job News
Full Text of Bill
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Since live quorum calls are rare, there is a chance it may even get media coverage [hold breath here]. Strategically, forcing votes on this bill serves the same purpose as voting on the Bush tax cuts - to distill and crystallize the differences between the parties. In addition, the bill was only recently reported out of committee - on September 22, 2010 - and therefore, the GOP has not had much time to formulate its recitation of lies against it.
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Well lo and behold! Not one Republican gives a dam! Are we surprised folks? They are called the party of no for a reason. They have filibustered at least 100 bills so far.
The following article explains "offshoring" better. It doesn't mean offshore drilling.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9187360/Sen._Reid_proposes_tax_break_for_U.S._hires
Computerworld - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has introduced legislation that would provide tax breaks to employers who hire U.S. workers to replace offshore workers.
The legislation, called The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act, aims to provide businesses "with relief from the employer share of the Social Security payroll tax on wages paid to new U.S. employees performing services in the United States," according to a Reid's office.
The bill, S. 3816, is not yet posted online.
Under the proposed law, a business must certify that a U.S. worker is replacing an employee who had been performing similar duties overseas to be eligible for the tax break. The tax break would continue 24 months for employees hired during a three-year period starting today.
Democrats are increasingly citing the shift of jobs offshore as an issue in this mid-term election. When he was in Ohio this month, President Barack Obama said that "I think if we're going to give tax breaks to companies, they should go to companies that create jobs in America -- not that create jobs overseas."
Obama described the issue as one that separates Democrats from Republicans.
Separately, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland this month issued an order banning the offshoring of any state work.
Reid's bill would also end subsidies for plant closing costs, prohibiting deductions, loss or credit "for amounts paid in connection with reducing or ending the operation of a trade or business in the U.S. and starting or expanding a similar trade or business overseas." It would not affect severance costs.
The proposed legislation would also end a federal tax subsidy "that rewards U.S. firms that move their production overseas," Reis's office said. Under current law, U.S. companies can defer paying U.S. tax on income earned by their foreign subsidiaries until that income is brought back to the United States. That action is known as "deferral."
Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said the legislation, "would be a common sense and practical use of the tax code to help slow offshoring and potentially reverse some that has already occurred.
"Unlike every other country, which uses its tax code to encourage job creation and economic development within its borders, America chooses to use its tax code to subsidize the offshoring of its jobs," said Hira. "This legislation not only would right an obvious wrong, it would go one step further by encouraging the inshoring of jobs."
Hira said the proposal is but one of number of changes that are needed.
Regarding the merits the approach of using tax breaks, Surendra Kaushik, a professor of finance at Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York, said that "long term it creates some incentive to local business to try to create talent. It's not a bad idea, it's introducing a little competition."
But the impact of the tax break will be mostly at the margins, and won't change the direction of the big IT firms that have been moving offshore as part of a long-term structural change, said Kaushik.
The tax break may help smaller firms that are writing software for increasing numbers of specialized activities, "so good entrepreneurs could employ a lot of people on a smaller scale," said Kaushik
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9187360/Sen._Reid_proposes_tax_break_for_U.S._hires
Computerworld - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has introduced legislation that would provide tax breaks to employers who hire U.S. workers to replace offshore workers.
The legislation, called The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act, aims to provide businesses "with relief from the employer share of the Social Security payroll tax on wages paid to new U.S. employees performing services in the United States," according to a Reid's office.
The bill, S. 3816, is not yet posted online.
Under the proposed law, a business must certify that a U.S. worker is replacing an employee who had been performing similar duties overseas to be eligible for the tax break. The tax break would continue 24 months for employees hired during a three-year period starting today.
Democrats are increasingly citing the shift of jobs offshore as an issue in this mid-term election. When he was in Ohio this month, President Barack Obama said that "I think if we're going to give tax breaks to companies, they should go to companies that create jobs in America -- not that create jobs overseas."
Obama described the issue as one that separates Democrats from Republicans.
Separately, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland this month issued an order banning the offshoring of any state work.
Reid's bill would also end subsidies for plant closing costs, prohibiting deductions, loss or credit "for amounts paid in connection with reducing or ending the operation of a trade or business in the U.S. and starting or expanding a similar trade or business overseas." It would not affect severance costs.
The proposed legislation would also end a federal tax subsidy "that rewards U.S. firms that move their production overseas," Reis's office said. Under current law, U.S. companies can defer paying U.S. tax on income earned by their foreign subsidiaries until that income is brought back to the United States. That action is known as "deferral."
Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said the legislation, "would be a common sense and practical use of the tax code to help slow offshoring and potentially reverse some that has already occurred.
"Unlike every other country, which uses its tax code to encourage job creation and economic development within its borders, America chooses to use its tax code to subsidize the offshoring of its jobs," said Hira. "This legislation not only would right an obvious wrong, it would go one step further by encouraging the inshoring of jobs."
Hira said the proposal is but one of number of changes that are needed.
Regarding the merits the approach of using tax breaks, Surendra Kaushik, a professor of finance at Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York, said that "long term it creates some incentive to local business to try to create talent. It's not a bad idea, it's introducing a little competition."
But the impact of the tax break will be mostly at the margins, and won't change the direction of the big IT firms that have been moving offshore as part of a long-term structural change, said Kaushik.
The tax break may help smaller firms that are writing software for increasing numbers of specialized activities, "so good entrepreneurs could employ a lot of people on a smaller scale," said Kaushik
Upon first read, this sounds good. BUT the reality of the situation is that most corporations will simply their headquarters overseas. Probably to a 3rd world country that their money can help control.
My apologies. I need new reading glasses!
The article tells what it is and there is a link immediately following the article and before the talking points. I dont know how you missed it if you read it.
I agree. It's confusing without a source or URL
Sorry to sound naive, but does "offshoring" mean an end to off shore drilling or an end to out sourcing to other countries? I could look it up, but .................
Would you please provide a URL for this or at least the full text of the bill? Often these bills are loaded down with earmarks and pork. Lately there has been a plethora of "unintended consequences" resulting from added regulations.
IF this bill also includes a clause to end permanently all off shore drilling, it won't and shouldn't pass. It won't make it to the floor.
Bills should only contain legislation related to the original bill. It's like the recent military funding debacle. Dems added amendments guaranteed to see it defeated. This shouldn't happen. Some things really shouldn't be messed with.
IF this bill also includes a clause to end permanently all off shore drilling, it won't and shouldn't pass. It won't make it to the floor.
Bills should only contain legislation related to the original bill. It's like the recent military funding debacle. Dems added amendments guaranteed to see it defeated. This shouldn't happen. Some things really shouldn't be messed with.
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