Trump And Pence Buy 800 Jobs With Taxpayer Money

The Republicans and trumpistas are celebrating what they claim is a big victory for the incoming Trump administration. They are claiming that Trump and Pence have saved over 1,000 jobs from be ing shipped to Mexico by Carrier (a division of United Technologies).

Trump had used Carrier's decision to ship a couple of thousand jobs to Mexico as a campaign theme. He promised that wouldn't happen if he was elected. Did he keep his promise? Not really.

First, only 800 jobs were actually kept in this country thanks to the Trump/Pence "deal" with Carrier. The other 300 jobs they are claiming to have saved were research and headquarters position -- which the company was never going to export.

Second, Carrier didn't keep those 800 jobs in Indiana out of the goodness of its corporate heart, or because Trump asked them to do it. They are receiving a very nice payoff -- they get $7 million dollars in tax cuts over the next 10 years -- about $8,750 in tax breaks for every job. That's not a "deal" -- it's a bribe (which I guess we should have expected, since Trump is used to paying bribes to get what he wants around the world).

In addition, Carrier's parent company (United Technologies) gets assurance that Trump won't interfere with their $5 billion in federal contracts.

This is not just a bad deal -- it's a terrible deal. And it sends a signal to every other American corporation. If you still owe any taxes after all the loopholes and subsidies you normally receive, then just threaten to move jobs to a low-wage country. The Trump administration will be happy to give you more millions in tax breaks. It makes millions more jobs a hostage to corporate greed.

And who gets to pay for those corporate tax breaks? State and federal taxpayers do. This may be a good deal to Trump, but it's a horrible deal for American taxpayers.

Third, Carrier (United Technologies) still gets to ship 600 jobs to Mexico from Indianapolis, and another 700 from Huntington, Indiana. So, after Trump's "great deal", 1300 jobs will still be lost to Mexico.

Is that your idea of a great deal?

(NOTE -- The image above is from YouTube.)