Byron Dorgan: “today I am joined by Senator Mikulski of Maryland and seven of our colleagues in introducing legislation to repeal one…”

“today I am joined by Senator Mikulski of Maryland and seven of our colleagues in introducing legislation to repeal one of the most egregious tax subsidies found in the U.S. Tax Code. Believe it or not, U.S. companies that move their manufacturing plants and good-paying jobs overseas will be rewarded with billions of dollars in tax breaks over the next 10 years. Unfortunately for both American workers and American taxpayers, this is absolutely true. Our bill will repeal this wrong-headed fiscal policy that has worked against the interest of American manufacturers for so many years. Let me describe how this perverse tax subsidy works. Imagine two competing U.S. companies manufacturing a product for sale in this country. Company A has a plant with American workers. It sells its product here at home, immediately paying U.S. taxes on its profits. Company B, however, decides to shut down its U.S. plant, fire its American workers and build a new plant in a foreign country because it can produce the same goods at lower cost there, using underpaid foreign workers. Moreover, Company B pays almost no taxes in the foreign country and no taxes currently in the United States because it is entitled to tax "deferral" under our income tax laws.”