03-29-2018, 12:39 PM
Saw this article and found it interesting: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/us/politics/trump-amazon-taxes.html
Now, I have my issues with Amazon, and were it no so damned convenient I would jettison them from my life. I don't think they pay enough in taxes, or enough to the USPS, or think that cities should be bending over backwards to give them tax breaks to allow them to come to set up shop in their borders. What I find interesting in this isn't even that the ire seems to be really rooted in the WaPo connection. My interest lies in his commentary during the debates when, called out for paying little to no taxes, he said that was "smart."
He's not wrong, that is how the system works and I don't begrudge anyone that follows the laws and does that. I think those loopholes should be closed. But he isn't doing that. He pushed a tax bill through that made corporations pay less in taxes. He isn't closing these gaps, he is increasing them. He only seems to be in favor of a market economy for those he agrees with. This is a dangerous path to go down.
Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump escalated his attack on Amazon on Thursday, saying that the online behemoth does not pay enough taxes — and strongly suggesting that he may try to rein in the e-commerce business.
The president’s commentary was made in a Twitter post in which he accused Amazon of putting thousands of local retailers out of business and of using the United States Postal Service as “their Delivery Boy.”
Amazon and the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, are among Mr. Trump’s regular Twitter targets. In December, Mr. Trump questioned whether the United States Post Office charges Amazon enough for package deliveries. And in August, Mr. Trump said Amazon hurts taxpaying businesses.
Amazon, however, does pay taxes — $412 million in 2016, for instance, according to the company’s report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Trump has attacked Amazon on Twitter more than a dozen times since late 2015, months after he had launched his presidential campaign. Many of those tweets seem to have been prompted by critical coverage in The Washington Post, the news organization that Mr. Bezos acquired personally in 2013 for $250 million.
Now, I have my issues with Amazon, and were it no so damned convenient I would jettison them from my life. I don't think they pay enough in taxes, or enough to the USPS, or think that cities should be bending over backwards to give them tax breaks to allow them to come to set up shop in their borders. What I find interesting in this isn't even that the ire seems to be really rooted in the WaPo connection. My interest lies in his commentary during the debates when, called out for paying little to no taxes, he said that was "smart."
He's not wrong, that is how the system works and I don't begrudge anyone that follows the laws and does that. I think those loopholes should be closed. But he isn't doing that. He pushed a tax bill through that made corporations pay less in taxes. He isn't closing these gaps, he is increasing them. He only seems to be in favor of a market economy for those he agrees with. This is a dangerous path to go down.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
