Dipto Islam, March 4, 2016
Bernie Sanders has been accused of selling promises. Hillary
Clinton repeatedly asserts that Sanders is “promising more than he can deliver.”
His policy proposals have been criticized as nothing but promises that add up
to naught and funding them would not be possible. In response, Sanders dismissed
those accusations and assertions boldly to Face the Nation moderator John Dickerson. He defended
his policy proposals claiming that the “numbers add up perfectly”, but to
implement them will take “guts.”
“The numbers add up
perfectly. The issue is — do we have the guts to take on the wealthy and the
powerful in corporate America, who today have so much wealth and so much
power?”
Sanders’ policy proposal includes tuition-free colleges and
universities which he wants to fund by imposing tax on Wall Street speculation.
Referring to his proposal of tuition-free colleges and universities, Sanders
explained, “That’s not a radical idea, it exists in Germany [and] in
Scandinavia. ….. But it does require us to take on Wall Street and impose a tax on speculation.”
His proposal of infrastructure improvement could be funded through
the closing of offshore tax havens. Massive
infrastructure improvement plan will both provide better roadways and bridges
as well as create good-paying jobs. Referring to his proposal for rebuilding
crumbling infrastructure, Sanders said, “If we talk about creating 13 million
jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, it does require us to come up
with a trillion dollars by ending this outrageous loophole such that
corporations can put their money in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda and other
tax havens, not pay a nickel in taxes,” Sanders said.
Sanders stressed the need of
tighter regulation on tax loopholes that allow corporations to avoid or even evade
paying taxes and traffic those tax savings into offshore tax heavens. Tighter
regulation will increase tax revenue which he proposes to invest in
infrastructure and public welfare.
A study conducted in 2015 revealed that at least 15
major Fortune 500 companies paid zero taxes on $23 billion worth of profit in
2014 and almost paid no federal income tax on $107 billion over the past five
years. Some companies actually received a rebate. Corporations often use
accelerated depreciation loophole to avoid tax. Tighter regulation on
depreciation loophole alone would raise more than $428 billion for the
government over a decade, the study finds.
Corporations are given extra-ordinary concessions to avoid
tax unfairly and those tax savings to the corporations goes to offshore tax
heavens. Do American citizens get any benefit from those tax savings and their
eventual reinvestment in foreign lands? Undoubtedly the answer is no. Then why
do the corporations get those concessions? Definitely that is because they also
provide concessions to those in power. This is a “give and take game” to the
disadvantage of the US citizens.
On such lavish tax avoidance, Sanders said, “At a time when
we have massive wealth and income inequality, and when corporate profits are
soaring, it is an outrage that many large, profitable corporations not only
paid nothing in federal income taxes last year, but actually received a rebate
from the IRS last year.”
There are loads of assertions that
Sanders’ such plan of tighter regulation of tax loopholes is impractical. Is it
really impractical? Definitely not because lot other countries adopted such
measures which provided their governments enough fund to finance extensive public
expenditure schemes. Then, what is holding the US back from tightening tax regulations
to control those loopholes? Understandably, it is the same “give and take
game.”
“The Sanders spending program is a significant stimulus to
an economy that continues to underperform,” wrote Professor Gerald Friedman,
who prepared a report for the Sanders campaign. “These programs will
increase economic growth and employment, reduce poverty and inequality, and
balance the federal budget.”
“Like the New Deal of the 1930s, Senator Sanders’ program is
designed to do more than merely increase economic activity: the expenditure,
regulatory, and tax programs will increase economic activity and employment,
and promote a more just prosperity.”
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