September 18, 2024

When It Comes to Tech Policy, Biden and Harris Put America Last

Why isn’t the Biden administration defending American companies from European extortion?

The Wall Street Journal noted last week that American shareholders will lose tens of billions of dollars in investment income from their stock holdings in Silicon Valley companies like Google and Apple if several European Union sham lawsuits prevail.

These are generally suits alleging that America’s dominant tech companies are acting like monopolists. Or, to borrow a term, our tech companies are “price gouging.” Many of these companies are now above $2 trillion in their market cap. Every pension fund in America expands in size and benefits paid out to workers when these companies expand.

The EU’s courts outrageously ruled this week that Apple shareholders owe Europe 13.5 billion euros in back taxes because the company took advantage of Ireland’s low 12.5% tax rate. The EU “competition chief” declared that this sham court decision “is a big win for European citizens and tax justice.” No, it’s a big win for big government.

Meanwhile, Google shareholders are now forced to pay the EU $2.7 billion because its search engine has become dominant in the European market. The European search engines are so inferior that nobody wants to use them. So, sue American companies.

Let’s be clear here: The EU laggards are simply green with envy. The Eurozone has been crushed by American tech dominance. No company in socialist Europe has found a way to compete with American innovation at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and so on. Since they can’t compete, they invent sore-loser lawsuits.

That’s what the losers in sports from junior high school on always pout about: The other side didn’t play fair.

The bigger issue is why the Biden administration isn’t defending American companies from European extortion. These tech lawsuits are a tax on American knowhow and innovation.

Instead of defending American shareholders from the EU predators, the Biden regulators encourage and give legitimacy to the foreign courts.

How can the U.S. government complain against specious antitrust attacks (tech prices are falling dramatically) against Google and Apple when our own regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are bringing copycat lawsuits against our tech giants in U.S. courts? Lina Khan of the FTC has spent nearly four years peppering our tech industry leaders with nuisance lawsuits of her own.

The capricious fine against Google is a result of an American company shopping around the globe to find the lowest tax climate (Ireland) for doing business. This is illegal? Our corporate tax rate thanks to the Trump tax cut is now 21%, down from 35% under former President Barack Obama. But President Joe Biden and now presidential candidate Kamala Harris want to raise it back up to 28% or more. That only encourages more jobs and investment to move offshore. Did I mention that Ireland’s rate is just 12.5%?

Instead of lowering the rates here, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wants to force Ireland and other low-tax countries to raise their rates to a global minimum tax of 15% or more. This sounds a lot like collusion and cartel policy.  It’s like telling Kellogg’s they can’t charge less than $3 a box for Special K as a way to compete with Cocoa Crispies.

Similarly, the antitrust lawsuits from Europe and Washington aimed at American tech companies are spurious because nearly every price for tech services — from cellphones to drone deliveries to internet searches to fiber optic hookups — has been falling. How are consumers getting gouged if they keep paying less for new technologies?

There’s an old saying in sports: no harm, no foul.

I often don’t like the politics of Big Tech. But the end result of what Washington is doing to penalize American tech giants for building a better mousetrap is to move the high-tech hubs of the world — from Silicon Valley to Austin to Boston to Miami — to competitor nations. That’s a good way to lose jobs and put America last.

COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.