To be blunt, I’m not a big fan of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But my animosity isn’t because OECD bureaucrats threatened to have me arrested and thrown in a Mexican jail.
Instead, I don’t like the Paris-based bureaucracy because it pushes a statist agenda of bigger government. This Center for Freedom and Prosperity study has all the gory details, revealing that OECD bureaucrats endorsed Obamacare, supported the failed stimulus, and are big advocates of a value-added tax for America.
And I am very upset that the OECD gets a giant $100 million-plus subsidy every year from American taxpayers. For all intents and purposes, we’re paying for a bunch of left-wing bureaucrats so they can recommend that the United States adopt that policies that have caused so much misery in Europe. And to add insult to injury, these socialist pencil pushers receive tax-free salaries.
And now, just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, the OECD has opened a new front in its battle against America. The bureaucrats from Paris have climbed into bed with the hard left at the AFL-CIO and are pushing a class-warfare agenda. Next Wednesday, the two organizations will be at the union’s headquarters for a panel on “Divided We Stand – Tackling Growing Inequality Now.”
Co-sponsoring a panel at the AFL-CIO’s offices, it should be noted, doesn’t necessarily make an organization guilty of left-wing activism and mis-use of American tax dollars. But when you look at other information on the OECD’s website, it quickly becomes apparent that the Paris-based bureaucracy has launched a new project to promote class-warfare.
For instance, the OECD’s corruption-tainted Secretary-General spoke at the release of a new report on inequality and was favorable not only to higher income tax rates, but also expressed support for punitive and destructive wealth taxes.
Over the last two decades, there was a move away from highly progressive income tax rates and net wealth taxes in many countries. As top earners now have a greater capacity to pay taxes than before, some governments are re-examining their tax systems to ensure that wealthier individuals contribute their fair share of the tax burden. This aim can be achieved in several different ways. They include not only the possibility of raising marginal tax rates on the rich but also…reassessing the role of taxes on all forms of property and wealth.
And here’s some of what the OECD stated in its press release on income differences.
The OECD underlines the need for governments to review their tax systems to ensure that wealthier individuals contribute their fair share of the tax burden. This can be achieved by raising marginal tax rates on the rich.
Like Obama, the folks at the OECD like to talk about “fair share.” These passages sounds like they could have been taken from one of Obama’s hate-and-envy speeches on class warfare.
But the fact that a bunch of Europeans support Obama’s efforts to Europeanize America is not a surprise. The point of this post is that the OECD shouldn’t be using American tax dollars to promote Obama’s class-warfare agenda.
Here’s a video showing some of the other assaults against free markets by the OECD. This is why I’ve written that the $100 million-plus that American taxpayers send to Paris may be – on a per dollar basis – the most destructively wasteful part of the entire federal budget.
One last point is that the video was produced more than one year ago, which was not only before this new class-warfare campaign, but also before the OECD began promoting a global tax organization designed to undermine national sovereignty and promote higher taxes and bigger government.
In other words, the OECD is far more destructive and pernicious than you think.
And remember, all this is happening thanks to your tax dollars being sent to Paris to subsidize these anti-capitalism statists.
[…] It supported Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich “contribute their fair share.” […]
[…] supports Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich […]
[…] It supports Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich “contribute their fair share.” […]
[…] with leftist ideologues from the AFL-CIO and Occupy movement to advance Obama’s ideologically driven fiscal […]
[…] with leftist ideologues from the AFL-CIO and Occupy movement to advance Obama’s ideologically driven fiscal […]
[…] It supports Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich “contribute their fair share.” […]
[…] a bureaucracy that consorts and cooperates with leftist groups like Occupy Wall Street and the AFL-CIO and routinely published propaganda in favor of Obama’s agenda on issues such as global […]
[…] inequality narrative is not new, as the OECD a few years ago teamed up with the AFL-CIO to push a class warfare based agenda within the U.S. It also urged governments to review whether their tax systems are demanding from the wealthy their […]
[…] It supports Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich “contribute their fair share.” […]
[…] supports Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich […]
[…] I can only wonder, by the way, what Mr. Bloom would say if he knew about the bureaucrats at the Organization for Economic Cooperation. They are totally exempt from income tax, yet they spend a lot of their time trying to impose higher taxes on other nations (including the United States). […]
[…] reprehensible, for instance, that the OECD has allied itself with the Obama Administration to push for class-warfare tax policy. And it’s disgusting that these pampered bureaucrats at the […]
[…] reprehensible, for instance, that the OECD has allied itself with the Obama Administration to push for class-warfare tax policy. And it’s disgusting that these pampered bureaucrats at […]
[…] The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has embraced Obama’s class-warfare agenda and is pushing for higher tax rates in America. […]
[…] The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has embraced Obama’s class-warfare agenda and is pushing for higher tax rates in America. […]
[…] OECD has endorsed Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich […]
[…] OECD has endorsed Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich […]
[…] OECD has endorsed Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich […]
[…] OECD has endorsed Obama’s class-warfare agenda, publishing documents endorsing “higher marginal tax rates” so that the so-called rich […]
[…] wrote last week about how the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based international […]
[…] wrote last week about how the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based international […]
I fully concur with Mr. Pittelli’s comments, above. Where the h*ll are the congressional repubs on something like this?? Who would argue if we were to cut such funding? No democrat would dare stand up in Congress and complain. It would be political death. It truly boggles the mind, and it give more creedence to those who claim that there really is no difference between the parties.
OECD…. Spreading Europe´s ruinous taxes and opression to all the world. Shame on them!
At some point, America will have to make a decision on UN membership. We pay, what? 26% of their budget? We host their headquarters. Why not simply associate ourselves with our FRIENDS, rather than anyone with a so-called “government?” Here’s what I propose – America and its’ REAL friends, the true democracies of the world, leave the UN and form our own organization. Membership is simple: you MUST be a free democracy – period. You don’t have that; you don’t get in. Oh, and by the way? NO trade barriers within this new group, called …. let’s see …. the “Earth Freedom Alliance.” To start out with, it’d be, well … us, the Brits, the Aussies, the Canadians, India, Taiwan, Israel, Ireland, Japan, Germany, Brazil … along with the French and others. Who’s out? Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran … basically the entire Middle East, and some obvious others. You want in? – become a democracy. You’re a democracy now, but something happens and you aren’t any more? You’re OUT of the EFA – period. No negotiations, no whining …. pack your bags, you’re gone.
We’d have a sports league, and everything (just kidding).
There’d be a lot more plusses than minuses to this strategy – and, if nothing else, it would give the liberals something to be distracted about, while we start fixing Obama’s screwups in 2012.
Oh – one other thing. All prospective members must agree to be lectured to by John Bolton on how nations should behave. That’ll weed out the wannabes, at least.
Looks like another great agency to abolish after 2012
Maybe it’s because we are ruled by leftists?
Paris is for chocolate croissants not 100 million of our tax payer dollars.
The taxing thaing won’t work unless everybody racks up tax increases at the same time. Otherwise the producers just go Galt.
“As top earners now have a greater capacity to pay taxes than before, some governments are re-examining their tax systems to ensure that wealthier individuals contribute their fair share of the tax burden. ”
Or to say the same thing in a more direct manner: As the reduction in tax brackets have produced tangible, positive results, its time to cash in on the payoff and confiscate those results.
We would do better to flood the OECD with US business representatives (since we are paying for most of it) and push free market capitalism on the Europeans (its original purpose, more or less) than let the Europeans use it to erect regulatory labor barriers. Of course, that would have to wait for a free market oriented US administration.
(In other words, the problem is not with the OECD, which generally follows the US lead. It is where the current US administration is leading the OECD.)
Cy must think that a manufacturer telling his Board of Directors that they need to keep their prices competitive means that the company wants Congress to step in with a price-fixing scheme. That, or Cy is just a troll being deliberately obtuse and conveniently “misunderstanding” the arguments of advocates he opposes in a way that allows him to misconstrue those arguments.
Cy_Guy: Wow. Saying that US corporate tax policy needs to be competitive with that of other nations is far from saying there is a need for a “global tax organization”…
Among the last things we need are more “global” policy organizations.
So why do Republicans (who currently and often control the House) vote for these expenditures? I would imagine it’s to avoid being depicted as know-nothing isolationist rubes, as they are broadly depicted whenever they object to some portion of UN funding. I think we need to lobby the relevant House committee members on this if we want to eliminate these subsidies for leftish advocacy.
Also, did you mean to say “climbed into bad” or was that supposed to say “climbed into bed”?
I’m puzzled by the argument against a global tax organization, since the CATO Inst. keeps saying we have to bring US corporate taxes in line with our foreign competitors. Isn’t that arguing for a consistent global taxation policy?