Political Quotes

“the U.S. Senate is currently considering sweeping legislation to modernize the Nation's energy sector. Despite its laudable goals, it leaves one area unaddressed. The bill does nothing to stop corporate bad actors, including those in the energy sector, from simply writing off their egregious misconduct as a cost of doing business. Today I am submitting a commonsense amendment to close a tax loophole that forces hard-working Americans to subsidize corporate wrongdoing. Under current law, a corporation can deduct the cost of court-ordered punitive damages as an ``ordinary'' business expense. For the victims who have already paid the price for extreme corporate misconduct, there is nothing ``ordinary'' about this at all. It is simply wrong. It offends our most basic notions of justice and fair play. Punitive damage awards are designed to punish wrongdoers for the reprehensible harm that they cause and to deter would-be bad actors from repeating similar mistakes. Today a company can simply hire a team of lawyers and accountants to deduct this punishment from the taxes the company owes. My amendment would end this offensive practice with a simple fix to our Tax Code. Let us not forget that our energy sector has been plagued with companies that have recklessly destroyed environments and harmed communities with impunity. In 1994, a jury awarded $5 billion in punitive damages against Exxon for the Valdez spill in Alaska.…”