I normally never agree with the rantings of Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William), but I will give him credit for pointing out something that is absolutely true in his latest letter to Bob McDonnell.
It seems that Marshall went to great lengths to do the DPVA’s job for them, by pointing out McDonnell’s hypocrisy in accepting Virginia’s share of ther latest federal money designed to save thousands of teaching jobs, as well as bail out the state Medicaid program that was savaged in the state budget. Marshall told McDonnell that taking the money “is to tacitly accept that Representatives Cantor, Forbes, Goodlatte, Wittman and Wolf voted against Virginia’s better public interest and that [Democrats] cast the better vote for Virginians.”
Right on, Marshall! They did. Thanks for pointing that out for all to see. Far too often, Republican hypocrites get away with screaming about the evil federal government, while taking every federal dollar they can get. (Even South Carolina’s morally challenged Gov. Mark Sanford, who yelled for months last year about federal stimulus money, quietly changed his mind and took $97.5 million of the money by signing a bill his legislature passed enlarging eligibility for unemployment benefits.)
Of course, the GOP still can’t stop lying about the latest bill, calling it “borrowed money.” It isn’t. It’s completely paid for.
As Rep. Tom Perriello(D-5th) notes on his website, the bill is fully paid for, accomplished by in part by closing an egregious business tax loophole that has allowed multi-national corporations to get away with paying little or no taxes in the United States, while shipping jobs overseas. And that, my friends, is what the Republicans actually voted against.
What the corporations did was learn to game a provision in the tax code that was designed to prevent double taxation.
As Perriello explains:
The current foreign tax credit is designed to prevent corporations from being taxed twice, once by the United States and once by a foreign country, for income that is earned abroad. However, companies have devised schemes that enable them to operate offshore with essentially little or no tax liability to either the U.S. or the foreign government. As a result, U.S. multinational corporations paid an effective U.S. tax rate of just 2% on their $700 billion of foreign earnings, far less than the average worker pays on their income. Foreign tax credit abuse is among the Internal Revenue Service’s top compliance concerns for large corporate taxpayers.
So, the Democrats essentially killed “two birds with one stone.” Virginia will get money that could save 3,800 teaching jobs, plus get approximately $289 million for Medicaid. That will help plug the hole in Medicaid that the General Assembly and McDonnell created when they passed the last budget. Virginia now won’t have to make such draconian cuts in payments to Medicaid providers nor follow through with the severe drop projected for the FAMIS program that provides medical insurance for poor children and pregnant women.
Plus, the bill accomplishes a bit of deficit reduction by ending an unfair, infamous tax loophole.
You are absolutely right, Bob Marshall. Democrats “cast better votes for Virginians.” Thanks again for pointing that out for all to see. You may be wrong-headed in most of your views, but you are not a hypocrite, unlike the fellow GOPer who sits in the governor’s mansion.
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