Well, he finally has come right out and said it. Yes, he has.
Democrat presidential candidate, Barack Obama, speaking yesterday (Oct. 23) in Indianapolis, again attacked "big corporations" who use "tax loopholes" offshore -- but he also made plain that he wants "to shut tax havens" down.
If you would like to hear the farthest Left member of the U.S. Senate advocate an end to tax havens, spoken in his own mellifluous baritone, click here, then click on "Listen Now." 70781
He has no power, as yet, to ban tax havens worldwide or change the internal bank secrecy laws of sovereign nations such as Switzerland and Panama. But a President Obama could impose currency controls on dealings with selected countries, ban Americans moving cash offshore, and even confiscate assets under emergency decrees and the nefarious PATRIOT Act.
He Means What He Says
The young Illinois senator has made crystal clear that high among his goals in an Obama Administration will be: 1) the curtailment, if not abolition of tax havens worldwide; 2) an end to all business and personal financial privacy; 3) automatic exchange of tax information among all national tax collectors; 4) nullification of bank secrecy laws, and; 5) public records of all hitherto private beneficial ownership of trusts, foundations and corporations.
No doubt a host of far left foreign politicians and radical groups, now suddenly eager to "reform" the international financial system, will be overjoyed to join the Savior Obama in a global quest to remold the financial world.
Global organizations like Tax Justice Network, Oxfam GB, Friends of the Earth, Global Witness and Christian Aid have been waging a new global campaign against tax havens and offshore financial activity. They've been enlisting support from left-dominated countries like Norway, Chile, Brazil, Spain and France, organizations like the UNDP, the World Bank and even the International Monetary Fund.
How can I be so sure?
Because his words and actions, today and before, have defined what he intends to do.
Obama's Manifestos
In a Dec. 13, 2007 Iowa debate with Hillary Clinton, Obama said that as president he would crack down on corporate loopholes and tax savings, particularly those involving "offshore transactions".
Earlier in 2007, Obama joined the anti-offshore crowd, co-sponsoring and speaking in behalf of bills by fellow leftist senators Levin (D-MI) and Dorgan (D-ND). Their radical legislation wrongfully paints offshore tax havens as tax evasion centers and proposes giving the U.S. government plenary power to restrict Americans' offshore access.
Indeed Obama seems to see any offshore financial activity by Americans as suspect criminal activity.
On May 1, 2008, in a statement supporting yet another of his anti-offshore bills that would end the privacy of beneficial ownership, he said: "It is unacceptable for American companies to be used by criminals and terrorists as shields for tax evasion, terror financing, and financial crimes. We must ensure our law enforcement agencies have the ability to properly investigate any financial criminal wrongdoing. This important legislation promotes transparency, fairness, and public safety, and sheds light on the people behind corporate entities so that criminal and terrorist activities can be deterred or detected more effectively."
That there are ample federal laws to accomplish such goals seems lost on the freshman senator from Illinois, but to acknowledge that would not score any political points.
Pernicious Legislation
The Anti-Tax Haven Act, S. 681, sponsored by Obama, if it becomes law, would allow the U.S. Treasury to issue rules that could restrict American banks who have received billions in bailouts. Suddenly with the socialist "spread-the-wealth" Democrats in power, the offshore financial activity of these bailed out U.S. banks could be seriously curtailed.
Among other enormities in his legislation, it creates an unprecedented blacklist of 34 offshore jurisdictions (Switzerland included) presumed to be tax evasion sites, based only on the fact they have financial secrecy guaranteed by law.
His legislation gives the U.S. Treasury free reign "to take special measures against foreign jurisdictions and financial institutions that impede U.S. tax enforcement." It also requires all U.S. financial institutions to report to the IRS any offshore financial activity by clients and impose taxes on offshore trust income used to buy real estate, artwork and jewelry for U.S. persons.
More Fascist Powers
But I am indebted to Sovereign Society Council of Experts member, Larry Grossman, CFP, for pointing out that U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen and very lame duck President George Bush already have handed a potential President Obama all the power he may need to curtail Americans offshore financial activity.
Larry pointed out language in the new Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) law that authorized a $700 billion bail out of banks (and, it seems, almost anyone else except taxpayers).
The TARP law authorizes the Treasury Secretary "to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation, the following: Designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Federal Government, and such institutions shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Federal Government as may be required."
It's not bad enough that the PATRIOT Act has forced all U.S. bankers to be spies for the government, don't you think Obama's Secretary of the Treasury can (and will) use this unlimited power seriously to curtail Americans' offshore financial activity?
Cynicism Unbounded
But the Chicago style political cynicism of Obama in denouncing offshore financial activity and tax havens is breathtaking -- as is the eagerness of bankers and Wall Street to appease him -- and prostitute themselves.
Example: In September Obama released an Internet and TV ad mocking John McCain for visiting Bermuda last year, vowing to preserve the tax haven there, then taking money from the insurance industry. McCain did indeed tell the local Royal Gazette last year: "The industry, the re-insurance that’s had such phenomenal success has been good for both nations. I would oppose any measures that would upset that." Obama claimed that insurance CEO’s and lobbyists then donated $50,000 to McCain.
But Obama's ad never mentioned that he also received plenty from the insurance industry, ranking as one of the top recipients, with $1,290,434 in the 3rd quarter election cycle alone.
Similarly, at a U.S. Senate hearing last July Obama praised Senator Levin's anti-offshore attacks, claiming: "Ordinary Americans pick up the slack for tax cheats who hide assets in offshore tax havens, often with the help of foreign banks like UBS and LGT."
But in issuing his ringing anti-tax haven statement critical of UBS, the major money losing Swiss bank, Obama said nothing about one of UBS' most prominent executives, Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas, who by July, 2008 had collected and bundled more than $370,850 in campaign contributions, making UBS Obama's fifth largest corporate donor.
Obama's New World Order
So much for that selfless "new era" in politics Senator Obama talked so much about. We certainly don’t begrudge him his offshore banker friend at UBS – but why should have want to block all Americans from having their own legal dealings with offshore banks of their choice.
Let's face it, Obama does not just want to pile more taxes on U.S. middle and high income earners, he wants to control productive Americans and their financial dealings -- forcing them to keep their funds in America where they more easily can be confiscated and "redistributed" to the 40% of Americans who pay no taxes.
Alexis de Tocqueville predicted Obama's ilk way back in 1835 when he wrote: "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." And so the New Deal motto has been revived: "Tax, tax, spend, spend, elect, elect."
And one last thought.
At a time when the world may be facing a global depression unlike anything seen since 1929, Obama, for the sake of his wealth redistribution schemes, would seriously disrupt the ability of American capital to invest, expand and aid foreign economies and other nations hard hit by the recession.
His liberty destroying, global finance disrupting plans could be the modern equivalent of the disastrous Smoot-Hawley Tariffs that prolonged Roosevelt's decade long-Great Depression.
What They Really Think
But in an article in The Nation (July 22, 2008) states the Class Warfare doctrine that the Democrat's radical presidential nominee hints at -- but wont admit openly:
"Rich people the world over, including tens of thousands of wealthy Americans, are now free to opt in to this sophisticated, secretive, utterly unprincipled global private banking industry. They can become, in effect, residents of nowhere for tax purposes, citizens of a brave new virtual country, which offers its inhabitants unprecedented freedom from the taxes, regulations and moral restraints that the rest of us take for granted. They wield enormous political influence even without paying taxes, merely by making contributions, threatening to withhold them--or better yet, threatening to abscond with their capital unless certain conditions are met. In a sense, this is the ultimate libertarian pipe dream: representation without taxation. But it is a nightmare for the rest of us, and we must design and organize our way around it."
Have a nice weekend – and don’t forget to vote.
* While you can there still are many legal ways to bank and save taxes offshore; I tell you Where To Stash Your Cash: Click Here. And if you're interested in Switzerland, Click here for Swiss Money Secrets.
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