Mike Levin: “it is truly appropriate that Senator Reid be the principal cosponsor of this amendment because this is an issue which he…”

“it is truly appropriate that Senator Reid be the principal cosponsor of this amendment because this is an issue which he has raised over the years with great passion, great feeling. This would just as appropriately be a Reid-Levin, et al., amendment as well as my offering it on our behalf. Young men and women are putting their lives on the line for us and our country while some corporations have stiffed our country, renouncing their citizenship, going through phony reincorporations in Bermuda or other tax-haven countries to avoid paying taxes. This process is called corporate inversion. It is one of the abuses about which we all know as a shell headquarters being opened up in a tax haven, while all the benefits of living in America remain, all the benefits we would hope to provide in this bill--for instance, protection, homeland security, police, fire, port security. They take advantage of all the other services which are provided to these particular corporations. But because a shell headquarters has been opened up for a few of these corporations in Bermuda, they have avoided paying taxes. They continue to use our roads and our law enforcement, our education system. They use our free trade laws. But then they avoid paying taxes by opening up a post office box and a computer in a tax haven. One of the colleagues of ours who was most deeply involved in trying to correct this was Paul Wellstone.…”