An American political analyst and activist says multinational corporations own the US Congress, which passes laws to protect them and it launches wars to boost their profits.
Myles Hoenig told Press TV on Friday that America is no more a democratic country. “Decisions are made by the super rich and for the super rich.”
Hoenig, who is running for Congress as a Green Party candidate, made the remarks while commenting on a new research which shows that US corporate giants, such as Apple, General Electric, and Microsoft, are hiding nearly $1.4 trillion in dozens of offshore tax havens.
Oxfam America, which is the US arm of the global anti-poverty organization Oxfam, said in a new report on Thursday that 50 top American companies are denying the US administration, and other governments much needed tax income.
The report said the funds stashed by the corporations offshore between 2008 and 2014 show the extent to which tax havens allow firms to avoid taxes.
The companies also used more than 1,600 subsidiaries in tax havens to hoard and move money around outside the reach of fiscal authorities, the report pointed out.
Hoenig said it “should come as no surprise. The idea of a corporation being a good ‘citizen’ is stuff of fairy tales. They are in it to make money, however they can, whenever they can, and the very idea of civic responsibility is not part of their common ethics.”
“To these multinational organizations, the idea of having a national identity is for show. Their loyalties are only to their stockholders and their corporate officers, many of whom are obviously paid very well to find ways of hiding profits to avoid taxes. We don’t need to go into what a trillion dollars can do for the US. What can be eradicated by such funds is obvious,” he stated.
“The equivalent amount of money spent on our imperial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the buildup of our military, only shows that the needs of every day Americans is beyond their comprehension or concern. They own the Congress. Congress passes laws to protect these corporations. Congress wages wars to enhance their profits. We have stopped being a democracy a long time ago,” he noted.
“What we will not see is any attempt to reign in this theft of our taxes. There will be calls for it now and people like Bernie Sanders will use it for his campaign, but once the next Congress convenes next January, regardless of who is the president, this story will barely rate a footnote. The people of Iceland can bring down their government over this but Americans are too busy with Dancing with the Stars and baseball,” the activist said.
“After Sanders goes down in defeat and tries to get his supporters to endorse Clinton, with her millions, the people here will go one of two ways. Either a revolt at the ballot box with multiple parties, including the Green Party, making headway, or, and most likely, people will be turned off and go back to what they’ve been doing. This exposure is not the first shock to the system, nor will it be the last. What will last is our overall complacency,” concluded Hoenig, who is running for Congress as a Green Party candidate.
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