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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 &
Commercial Services
Minimum Service CHG.
$45.00
A small distance/travel charge
may be applied
CARPET CLEANING
2 Cleaning Areas or
more $30.00 Each Area
Pre-Spray Traffic Areas
{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
Sofa: $69.00
Loveseat: $49.00
Sectional: $ 109 - $ 139
Chair or Recliner
$25 - $49
Throw Pillows (With
Other Services): $5.00
%
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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'