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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPanama Papers: Obama, Clinton Pushed Trade Deal Amid Warnings It Would Make Tax Evasion Worse
Years before more than a hundred media outlets around the world released stories Sunday exposing a massive network of global tax evasion detailed in the so-called Panama Papers, U.S. President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed for a Bush administration-negotiated free trade agreement that watchdogs warned would only make the situation worse.
Soon after taking office in 2009, Obama and his secretary of state who is currently the Democratic presidential front-runner began pushing for the passage of stalled free trade agreements (FTAs) with Panama, Colombia and South Korea that opponents said would make it more difficult to crack down on Panamas very low income tax rate, banking secrecy laws and history of noncooperation with foreign partners.
Even while Obama championed his commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy, he pursued and eventually signed the Panama agreement in 2011. Upon Congress ratifying the pact, Clinton issued a statement lauding the agreement, saying it and other deals with Colombia and South Korea "will make it easier for American companies to sell their products." She added: "The Obama administration is constantly working to deepen our economic engagement throughout the world, and these agreements are an example of that commitment."
Critics, however, said the pact would make it easier for rich Americans and corporations to set up offshore corporations and bank accounts and avoid paying many taxes altogether.
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Initech
(100,100 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)I'll never be in the same club as the Clinton's - even is she pretends I can be
maindawg
(1,151 posts)Looks like your just another criminal after all.
ashtonelijah
(340 posts)Calling President Obama a criminal? Tacky. Go have a Tea Party.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)That's cold. No wonder you don't feel the Bern.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)So happy to see real liberals and progressives figuring it out, governments and their leaders around the world don't give a flying titty about us everyday people.
This is the revolution.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)berni_mccoy
(23,018 posts)Make prosecution of tax evasion more difficult and enables new companies to commit evasion and laundering without scrutiny.
maindawg
(1,151 posts)He knew what's up. I did not know what's up. That's because he did not say what it was he lied and he fucking signed the trade deal so the billionaires can expand their crimes. You think he was ignorant ,unaware , of the deal ? Why did he sign the bill , make this crime legal ? He did it. He's like Reagon with his crimes . the difference is Reagon was a fucking moron. Big O knows he was turning the ruling class loose to extract what wealth there was left in 2009 in the USA by these greedy criminals. Governments are falling. Wars may result. Obama signed it.
leftofcool
(19,460 posts)We get it, you hate Obama!
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)christx30
(6,241 posts)that you're making a huge mistake, and you go ahead because you know better, that's not hindsight. It's just ignoring facts.
Hindsight is when everyone is saying it's a good idea, and it turns out bad. "I should have known that punching that cop wasn't a good idea. Oh well. Hindsight and all..."
TM99
(8,352 posts)who just happens to be running for president calls this one accurately years before, called the Iraq War & the birth of ISIS before it occurred, and called the damage that NAFTA would produce in the 1990's a decade before we saw the actual damage, foresight is apparently a trait one candidate has and the other sorely lacks.
86derps
(44 posts)Of course Obama and Hillary were and are for trade agreements. They benefit their, and other establishment politicians, donors. This is what is wrong with establishment democrats. Blue Dog democrats. Third way democrats. They are bought and paid for and will not fight for the reforms our country needs. If Hillary supporters don't see that now, you will see that if she is elected. By then, however it will be at least four years until we can vote a real progressive candidate in to office.
nikto
(3,284 posts)Centrists pat the average citizen on the back with 1 hand,
while picking our pockets with the other.
NCjack
(10,279 posts)can afford to continue suffering the results.
LiveLong101
(13 posts)It has changed, and not for the better.
maindawg
(1,151 posts)Greed is all it is. It's just greed.
nikto
(3,284 posts)They would have converted our gov't to Nazi, just to declalre a "win"
for America.
Win by losing.
Rex
(65,616 posts)They will need private armies the size of some national armies. That will cost a lot and so will relocation. The POTUS doesn't run the show, he just executes policy and makes diplomatic overtures. Wall Street runs the show, they did when FDR was in office and they will be running the show until people stand up to the system that robs the working class blind.
And when ya work 60 hours a week, that is never going to happen.
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)isn't a discussion topic:
Who said this?
In 2011, as the United States prepared to confirm a trade deal with Panama Bernie Sanders raised a red flag.
Panama is the world leader when it comes to allowing wealthy Americans and large corporations to evade US taxes by stashing their cash in offshore tax havens, he said in a speech on the Senate floor. And the Panama Free Trade Agreement would make this bad situation much worse.
http://qz.com/655212/in-a-2011-speech-bernie-sanders-predicted-the-revelations-of-the-panama-papers/
here's the whole speech:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-speech-by-sen-bernie-sanders-on-unfettered-free-trade
maindawg
(1,151 posts)Bernie keeps hitting it out of the park
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)you should see the way the Clinton supporters are trying to spin it.
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)We had any sense at all we'd raise enough money to run that vid as an ad on TV in New York. It's definitive proof that good judgement trumps experience every single time in politics.
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)Great link... That deserves an OP all it'd own!
This paragraph at the end sums up how many countries like China think:
'In this 1925 work, Lippmann belittled what he saw as the nostrums of American democracy held so dear by so many in our country. "A false ideal of democracy can lead only to disillusionment and to meddlesome tyranny. If democracy cannot direct affairs, then a philosophy which expects it to direct them will encourage the people to attempt the impossible; they will fail, but that will interfere outrageously with the productive liberties of the individual. The public must be put in its place
so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd."'
In fact many old post Soviet states wonder what good democracy has brought them, as they're often now worse off and still feel - like many Americans - that their system is neither controlled by the masses or benefits the masses.
leftofcool
(19,460 posts)EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)Democrats are as big a part of the financial corruption as Republicans, in some cases a much bigger part... and yeah, that includes Obama... until we open our eyes about this it'll just keep getting worse and worse...
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)So he knew what he was doing, and so did Clinton. Until we start holding D's accountable, instead of making excuses and attributing deserved criticism to "hate," we will keep getting what we deserve. Citizenship is not about being a cheerleader or an ostrich.
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)America trumps Party.
I won't vote because of negative partisanship and I won't vote out of fear.
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)and how'd you like to see this?
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=dinner+with+goebbels
could they pull up another chair for Herr Drumpf?
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)Looks really interesting. It's a kinda cool idea at the very least.
It seems like it might be a better read than experience though.
It still amazes me how ignorant people are about Bernays.
If you've never seen this you should, as should every American:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2d29tf_the-century-of-the-self-part-1-of-4-happiness-machines_school