Political Quotes

“Second question, again coming from the synopsis, and I know it is not perfect, but it says the bill would authorize two U.S.-built, -owned and -flagged vessels to enter into the U.S. coastwise trades. My question is, it has been highly publicized in the New York Times and other publications that through the unintended consequences, and I do mean unintended consequences, of the foreign lease provisions in the 1996 Coast Guard authorization bill that some of these U.S.-owned corporations are actually chartering out of the Bahamas and, therefore, totally avoiding their U.S. tax obligations for vessels that are protected by the Coast Guard, for vessels that use channels that are dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers and God forbid if the vessel is seized by terrorists. That owner would never hesitate to call upon the U.S. Navy Seals to go rescue his vessel. My question is, do these two vessels fall into that category of being owned by a corporation that has already inverted overseas in order to avoid U.S. taxes?”