Obama legacy
- Thread starter NovaHoops2002
- Start date
1 - 1st President to pass true healthcare reform - not a great policy but started the process
2 - 1st President to support Gay Marriage and have it pass during his time in office
3 - Killed Bin Laden
4 - Ended sanctions and reopened diplomatic ties with Cuba.
just off the top of my head but those 4 above will look good in the future.
2 - 1st President to support Gay Marriage and have it pass during his time in office
3 - Killed Bin Laden
4 - Ended sanctions and reopened diplomatic ties with Cuba.
just off the top of my head but those 4 above will look good in the future.
NickleDimer
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Conservative columnist David Brooks is writing about......health care inflation has been at historic lows
NickleDimer
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The ACA has done some good things. It has forced providers and insurance to price for value. Thats a very good thing. However, what we ate seeing is the uptake has not been very good and it's very expensive to access care. The result is many are still behaving as if they don't have insurance because the out if pocket costs for service is very high. They have kept premiums down so it looks affordable, and most are subsidized l, but when yoy actually need the care it's very expensive. Nothing is free. Be very interesting to see how it evolves. Going to cost taxpayers a fortune to fix.
NickleDimer
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No major hurricane landfalls. No other US president can say this. Not even Chester A. Arthur.
*Category 3 plus.
*Category 3 plus.
Nope-
BO has made RR look like a lightweight when it comes to burying future generations under mountains of debt while interest rates are artificially kept at historic lows. I'm glad The Dean doesn't see it as a problem! I wish I could look past it too.
NickleDimer
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Nope-
The national debt is sustainable - FOREVER - at current % of GDP and current interest rates.
NickleDimer
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So, interest rates are going to remain this low FOREVER? Glad to know that. Now I can sleep better -The national debt is sustainable - FOREVER - at current % of GDP and current interest rates.
I wish people would stop thinking of the US economy as analogous to their personal checking accounts...very very different debt...what would the world be like if the debt ceiling was the same as that when Hamilton created the banking system? Sure stupid non productive debt spurs on inflation and dilutes the value of money but over all good debt is what creates opportunities and fuels the way to innovations and a higher standard of living.
S&P 500 COMPANIES WITH THE MOST LONG-TERM DEBT
- General Electric
- Verizon
- AT&T
- Comcast
- Actavis
- Kinder Morgan
- Apple
- Wal-Mart
- Duke Energy
- Int’l Bus. Machines
- Medtronic
- Oracle
NickleDimer
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I believe the bulk of Apple's free cash is held "offshore" and unavailable for such activities as shareholder dividends and share buybacks.
Could be wrong though...
NickleDimer
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So, they keep it there to avoid paying their fair share and instead use debt for those purposes? Beautiful.
We absolutely have to reform the way we do corporate taxes. I'm no expert but when I see that Pfizer might buy Allergan because it would enable them to pay a significantly lower (read foreign) tax rate something is wrong. These inversions are not a good thing for our long-term economic health.
100% correct. ~90% is overseas, and Ichan and his ilk keep the heat on for share buybacks and dividends.
NickleDimer
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So is it tightening the tax code to force them to pay? Or lower the rates so that it's not worth their time to play these games?
Yeah, I read they would save more in taxes than they make in Viagra sales in a year. [Insert dick joke here]
Pfizer's effective tax rate is around 25% but BioPharma probably averages right around 20%. Those lower usually have manufacturing hubs in places like PR which help lower the rate.
Allergan's I read was 15%.. not an uncommon rate here either. I know for example Amgen floats around there.
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Outstanding point. We can't expect these companies to be stand up entities.Our tax policies are forcing them overseas.
ND, I think we need to cut the rates and go towards a more territorial system. However, I'm far from a tax expert so I'm sure others here could speak much more intelligently on the subject. I'd like to hear STRICK's thoughts. He knows this stuff much better than me.
NickleDimer
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Cutting rates directly benefits the 1%, tho. Not sure that those dirty dems would get on board with that
Are the burdens really that high with all that is parked overseas? It seems like, especially in pharma and tech companies will keep chasing lower anyway they can regardless of how low you go.
Cutting corporate tax rates benefits the 1%? I don't see it. It helps everyone. Looking specifically at PHRMA, its costing us jobs and hurting innovation. It's bad policy. Look at what happened to Allergan. That was all about inversion. Now it could happen again with Pfizer. It's costing us tax revenue as well. Doing it the right way, lowering the rates might actually bring more taxes into the Treasury.
Allergan accepted the actavis deal to stave off Ackman's hostile bid. It was not all about an inversion like Pfizer's attempt now.
I'm aware but Ackman was going to invert them and slash jobs. Forest did the same thing. Now Pfizer is going to do the same thing. However, that has a long way to go. If the inversion wasn't available or necessary Allergan is still around. Instead it's now gone. I don't know how much of their Irvine facility is left but lots of people lost jobs.
and R&D 900 million vs 400 million and nothing the Allergan folks viewed as a net win for shareholders. Agree that having these type of options around puts them in play and the new Allergan has been a star performer for Wall Street thanks to that lower tax rate. My question is .. how low is low enough to stop these games if cutting rates is the solution?? 10% 8% 5%?? Ton of biopharma <20% already based in the US.
Ireland's corporate tax rate is 12.5%, ours is 35%.So in this case, it's a no brainer.So let's get our rate down to 25%. That would seem to be reasonable. Can't we all agree? If nothing else, find a way to stop the inversions. I'm simply not smart enough to know how. If you eliminate the reason, our high tax rate, that's probably a start. I also think going more towards a territorial system would help. Do you agree? You tell me what you think? You probably have much greater depth as I'm not expert on tax policy.