Union (AFL-CIO) Calls For Foreign Profits Tax To Fund Health Reform

Source: Dow Jones

By Martin Vaughan

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. labor unions are joining a push by the Obama administration to raise taxes on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals. An AFL-CIO official will urge a Senate committee Tuesday to use the proceeds from Obama's tax changes - as much as $210 billion - to help fund an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system.

"In order to get health reform done, we cannot rely solely on savings in the system; we will need to identify additional revenues," according to prepared testimony from Gerald Shea, assistant to the president at AFL-CIO. "Beyond these savings, we urge the committee to consider broader tax reform options, including those put forth by President Obama," including taxes on the overseas income of multinationals, he said.

Shea is slated to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday about options to finance an ambitious overhaul of the health-care system to lower costs and provide coverage to 50 million uninsured Americans.

Shea said other options to pay for health care include raising the tax rate on the returns of private-equity and hedge-fund managers; repealing the "last-in, first-out" method of accounting; and letting the capital gains tax revert to 20%, all of which have been proposed by Obama.


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neither will they damned drug companies.