"Corporate inversion" has been in the news lately. This is when a U.S. corporation buys a small company somewhere overseas, shuffles some paper around, and -- voila! -- declares that it has reincorporated in, say, Belgium. Operations remain here in America, and nothing else changes. It's done to escape the U.S. corporate tax rate and adopt the lower rate in the new "home" country. (Our corporate rate is 35%. Very few companies pay anywhere near that, and a great many pay zero, but what the hell.)
None other than Fortune magazine calls the practice "un-American," but Republicans are falling all over themselves defending it. In unison, they remind us it's "perfectly legal" (if it's legal, it must always be done), and these corporations are merely performing their "fiduciary duty" to their shareholders. Screaming CNBC Tea-Bagger Rick Santelli says corporate inversion is "patriotic." With a straight face, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Oh) declared such companies to be "economic refugees." Please, Robby!
Fiduciary duty, my ass! Such companies are fid-douchebags!
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