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îl!' ^ îo rtlan h (ribseruer
November 21, 2012
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New Prices
Effective
May 1,2010
Martin
Cleaning
Service
Carpet & Upholstery
Cleaning
Residential &
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Minimum Service CHG.
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A small distance/travel charge
may be applied
CARPET CLEANING
2 Cleaning Areas or
more $30.00 Each Area
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{Includes: I sm all H allway)
1 Cleaning Area (only)
$40.00
Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area
(Hallway Extra)
Stairs (12-16 stairs - With
O ther Services): $25.00
Area/Oriental Rugs:
$25.00 Minimum
Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool):
$40.00Minimum
Heavily Soiled Area:
Additional $10.00 each area
(Requiring Extensive Pte-Spraying)
UPHOLSTERY
CLEANING
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%
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The Trojan Horse in Debt Debate
CEOs run
misleading
campaign
S arah A nderson
I t ’s
budget
showdown time in
W a s h in g to n .
W ith various tax
in c re a s e s
and
spending cuts set
to kick in at the end
o f the year, the pressure is on for
Republicans and D em ocrats to
make a deal.
A m ajor player in this hot de­
bate is a new corporate coalition
called "Fix the Debt." T hey've re­
cruited more than 80 CEOs of
Am erica's most powerful corpo­
rations and raised $60 m illion for
a big media and lobbying blitz.
T heir ads call for what appears
to be a m oderate agenda of bal­
ancing spending cuts with some
tax increases in order to bring
down the deficit and ensure a
bright future for the United States.
But a closer look suggests the Fix
the Debt cam paign is a Trojan
Horse.
Behind their m oderate slogans
is an extrem e agenda focused on
by
further reducing corporate taxes
and shifting the burden onto the
poor and elderly.
Take a look, for exam ple, at a
slideshow presentation the cam ­
paign has prepared as a "CEO
tool" for wooing supporters. You
can check it out right on their web
site. It says flat out that the so-
called "fiscal cliff" is an opportu­
nity to push for "considerably
less" spending on M edicare and
Medicaid. Ita lso c a llsfo ra s h iftto
a "territorial tax system ," which
report how much they've am assed
in overseas profits. Com bined,
these firm s stand to gain as much
as $134 billion in tax w indfalls if
the territorial system is adopted.
That's $134 billion that won't go
towards fixing the debt. To put
that figure in perspective, it would
be enough to cover the salaries of
two m illion elem entary school
teachers for a year.
One o f the biggest potential
winners from a territorial tax sys­
tem is Microsoft, which could reap
buys a copy o f M icrosoft Office,
a hefty chunk o f the profits is
recorded in no-tax zones.
Under current rules, M icrosoft
would have to pay U.S. taxes on
such foreign earnings if they bring
them back to the United States to
invest or pay shareholder divi­
dends. But under Fix the D ebt’s
favored territorial system , they
would be perm anently exem pted.
The Fix the Debt cam paign's
CEOs are attem pting to portray
themselves as the reasonable com ­
prom isers. Some o f them have
even offered to give up the Bush-
era tax cuts for the rich in ex ­
change for other parts of their
agenda. But given the massive
windfalls they could get from a
shift to a territorial tax system and
other corporate tax breaks, this is
hardly surprising. If their com pa­
nies save billions in tax dollars,
corporate profits will soar — and
their CEO pay will skyrocket too.
a savings o f $19.4 billion on its
Beware of this Trojan horse.
$60.8 billion in accum ulated for­ These CEOs may try to conceal their
eign earnings.
tired old agenda of more corporate
Why does M icrosoft have so tax breaks in a patriotic package. But
much dough stashed overseas? if they’re serious about helping
A Senate investigation this year America, they wouldn't be trying to
shed light on this question. They balance the budget on the backs of
found that M icrosoft takes the the most vulnerable.
patents for software developed at
Sarah Anderson directs the
its U.S. research facilities and reg­ Global Economy Project at the
isters them in tax haven countries. Institute for Policy Studies in
Tttdt \Hy,'W heri a U.S’. fcliStohler Washington, D.C.
...................
Microsoft takes the patents for software
developed at its U.S. research facilities and
registers them in tax haven countries. That
way, when a U.S. customer buys a copy of
Microsoft Office, a hefty chunk of the profits
is recorded in no-tax zones.
would perm anently exem pt U.S.
corporations' foreign income from
U.S. taxes.
At the Institute for Policy Stud­
ies, we analyzed how much the Fix
the Debt m em ber corporations
would have to gain from this par­
ticular corporate tax break. The
results are staggering.
We focused on the 63 Fix the
Debt m em ber com panies that are
publicly held and therefore rfitidt'