Say what you will about the Republican Party, but they are ruthlessly efficient when it comes to screwing American workers: The now-passed Republican tax bill comes with big incentives for American manufacturers to close their U.S. plants and relocate them overseas.
Under the new law, income made by American companies’ overseas subsidiaries will face United States taxes that are half the rate applied to their domestic income, 10.5 percent compared with the new top corporate rate of 21 percent. [...]
What could be more dangerous for American workers, economists said, is that the bill ends up creating a tax break for manufacturers with foreign operations. Under the new rules, beyond the lower rate, companies will not have to pay United States taxes on the money they earn from plants or equipment located abroad, if those earnings amount to 10 percent or less of the total investment.
The Times piece obligingly attempts to rebut its own premise with notes that "supporters contend" that won't happen; this would be a more sustainable position if past Republican tax cuts had not similarly resulted in new rounds of offshoring and corporate cash-hoarding. But we were there, and they did.
What Republican voters will think of this, when factory jobs continue to shrivel up in the next few years as cash-rich corporations choose to take advantage of Republican efforts to encourage outsourcing U.S. jobs, remains to be seen. No doubt the television commercials will blame “immigrants.”