Churches, communities, workers and others numbering in the thousands are opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They have seen what disastrous trade agreements have done to American jobs, balance of payments and sovereignty.
Just who are the beneficiaries of this proposed agreement that has been dubbed “NAFTA on Steroids?” That’s a short list, with basically two main beneficiaries, corporations and their minions in Congress.
Just what are these same American corporate beneficiaries now doing in droves? They are shifting their tax registry to countries like Ireland in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes, while leaving their actual operations in the U.S. to take advantage of infrastructure paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
A particularly ironic case, mind-boggling even to Fortune magazine, normally a cheerleader for the corporate elite, is Eaton Corporation PLC, which is nominally domiciled in Cleveland, Ohio, but which now has its tax residence in Ireland. Ironic because that company previously took $90 million in taxpayer subsidies to build its headquarters in Cleveland and its CEO is now a member of the Campaign to Fix the Debt, which advocates cutting Social Security and imposing Greek-style austerity on us because the U.S. doesn’t collect enough in taxes.
Our representatives in Congress need to hear: “no” to corporate tax dodgers and “no” to the TPP.
