[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10842]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  AMERICAN CORPORATIONS MOVING HEADQUARTERS OVERSEAS TO AVOID PAYING 
                                 TAXES

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Republican majority leader, 
the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey), defended the actions of 
corporations that moved their headquarters overseas to avoid taxes. He 
said it is just like families taking an itemized deduction. Well, I 
have got to say it is not exactly like that because Americans who take 
itemized deductions are paying taxes at a much higher rate than these 
corporations.
  Citizenship has its privileges. It also has some obligations. In a 
time of crisis, for some of the largest and most profitable 
corporations in this country to be engaging in a tax dodge to avoid 
their obligations to our Nation, at the same time shovelling more 
burden on to working Americans, and then for the majority leader of the 
Republican Party to say, hey, this is fine, that is a new low for the 
United States House of Representatives.
  More than 90 million tax paying American families every April 15 are 
obligated to pay, but the CEOs and some of the largest corporations in 
this country, they do not pay anymore. Tyco International is one of the 
ones who has moved down there. Enron, another corporate citizen. He 
said it is about competitiveness. It is not about competitiveness. It 
is about corruption and theft.

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