When one of Delaware’s elected Democratic Senators starts talking bipartisanship, I get very suspicious, because it usually means Republicans get what they want. And with Senator Coons’ recent talk of “tax code reform” in response to any question about raising taxes on the richest 1% in this country, in response to closing corporate loopholes and giveways, and his talk of reforming entitlements, I suppose I have to look at any proposal from his office made in conjunction with a teabagger very closely and very skeptically.
Sen. Chris Coons reached far, far across the aisle Tuesday, introducing a job-creation bill with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. […]
Their bill, the AGREE Act — for American Growth, Recovery, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship — combines elements of President Barack Obama’s jobs plan, recommendations from the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and proposals from both parties in Congress.
“We can dwell on the partisan politics that have gridlocked this body and this town for much of our first year in office, or we can look forward and find ways we can work together to help Americans confront this jobs crisis,” Coons said in a statement. “We need to help our businesses grow and create jobs, and that’s what the AGREE Act is designed to do.”
Stop. Senator Coons, partisan politics have not gridlocked Congress. Saying that means that you equally apportion fault and blame between the two parties. And that is blatantly false. The Republican Party has gridlocked Congress with obstruction after obstruction, from taking legislation and nominations hostage, to refusing to ever compromise, from secret holds on the most mundane nominations and legislation to outright filibustering every single piece of legislation designed to create jobs. Senator Coons, you do your party and the nation a disservice when you say otherwise. But whatever. It is the same bipartisan mealy mouthed bullshit we have come to expect from any Senator elected from Delaware.
He and Rubio say the bill would extend tax relief for small businesses, encourage research and innovation, reduce barriers to immigration for highly skilled workers, protect businesses from illegal counterfeiting, and provide tax incentives for hiring veterans and regulatory relief for small companies.
More specifically, here are the bullet points from a summary on Rubio’s website:
–>Provide a three year extension of 100 percent bonus depreciation for the full cost of qualified investments such as equipment and property.
–>Provide a three year extension of Section 179 expensing levels for small businesses.
–>Provide a three year extension of eliminated taxes on certain small business stock.
–>Extend the Research & Development tax credit until 2013, increase the Alternative Simplified Credit (ASC) from 14 percent to 20 percent, and makes the ASC permanent.
–>Establish an enhanced research credit for domestic manufacturers to encourage job creation at home.
–>Provide veterans with a tax credit equal to 25% of the fee associated with starting a franchise up to $100,000.
–>Provide a five-year exemption from Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley for the first five years of a company going public, or for those below $250 million in total gross revenue (whichever comes first).
–>Eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrant visas and adjusts the limitations on family based visa petitions from 7% per country to 15%.
–>Protect intellectual property by clarifying the Trade Secrets Act, and making it explicitly clear that it is not a crime for federal officials, in the performance of their duties, to share information about suspected infringing products with the right holder of a trademarked good.
Looking at this, a lot of it is temporary this and extension that. So I guess these are just simple quick fixes. I am not an intellectual property expert, so I have no idea if the proposal in there regarding IP is good or bad. So, Delaware Dems and Delaware Liberals, what’s the catch? I know there is one. How are we getting shafted?