Campbell, Cramer-backed tax bill could ship more American jobs overseas

(BISMARCK, ND) – It turns out that the partisan tax legislation – rushed through Congress and enthusiastically supported by U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell and Rep. Kevin Cramer – could actually lead to more outsourcing of good-paying American jobs.

In addition to adding nearly $1.5 trillion to the national debt, Cramer and Campbell not only supported a bill that cut middle-class families a raw deal, favored large corporations over small businesses, and at the time put Medicare and crop insurance on the chopping block, the Campbell and Cramer-backed bill also includes provisions for large corporations to ship their jobs overseas.

We know Republicans desperately needed to pass a bill – any bill – for “political survival,” but why did Campbell and Cramer support a bill that could severely impact American jobs? More details below:

According to The New York Times: “Tax Law May Send Factories and Jobs Abroad, Critics Say”

  • “The bill that Mr. Trump signed, however, could actually make it attractive for companies to put more assembly lines on foreign soil.”
  • “‘It’s sort of an America-last tax policy,” said Kimberly Clausing, an economist at Reed College in Portland, Ore., who studies tax policy. “We are basically saying that if you earn in the U.S., you pay X, and if you earn abroad, you pay X divided by two.’”
  • “What could be more dangerous for American workers, economists said, is that the bill ends up creating a tax break for manufacturers with foreign operations. Under the new rules, beyond the lower rate, companies will not have to pay United States taxes on the money they earn from plants or equipment located abroad, if those earnings amount to 10 percent or less of the total investment.”
  • “‘Having such a low rate on foreign income is outrageous,’ said Stephen E. Shay, a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School and a Treasury Department official during the Reagan and Obama administrations. ‘It creates terrible incentives.’ […]  Such companies, Mr. Shay said, now have no reason to resist the temptation to shift some of their operations abroad, since they would end up paying half the rate they would pay in the United States.”