Warren: Time of corporate ‘freeloading’ is over

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on Congress to pass a bill that would stop corporate “freeloaders.”

“They’re taking advantage of everything our government provides … and then running out on the bill,” Warren said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “If a person did that, we’d call them a freeloader.

{mosads}“The time for freeloading is over.”

Warren, along with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), has introduced the Stop Corporate Inversions Act, which would prevent companies that leave the United States from taking advantage of tax benefits.

Under current law, if 20 percent or more of a U.S. company is owned by stakeholders overseas the company can avoid paying U.S. taxes even if they keep their headquarters within the United States. Her legislation aims to dissuade such corporate inversion.

Warren said these companies are taking advantage of U.S. taxpayer investments in education and infrastructure but not paying their fair share. She also said she knows that if the Senate could pass her bill, House Republicans would block it.

“If we’ve learned anything, it’s that House Republicans will claw, scratch, whimper and beg to do anything they can to protect corporate loopholes,” Warren said.