What to Do About Disloyal Corporations - by Robert Reich

Found here. Reproduced here for fair use and discussion purposes. My comments in bold.
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I find myself commenting on Dr. Reich's missives rather frequently, mostly because he is billed as an intellectual, yet his thinking and presentation lacks nuance and thoughtful consideration.
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Just like that, Pfizer has decided it’s no longer American. It plans to link up with Ireland’s Allergan and move its corporate headquarters from New York to Ireland. (Is there something wrong with a business or a person deciding they're no longer American? Lots of Americans, particularly leftists, want to repudiate their status as Americans. A lot more seem to want to blame America for every problem. And still others actually hate America. 

So might we wonder why Dr. Reich's anger is focused on a corporation? That ought to be obvious. Because Dr. Reich hates corporations and thinks they do damage to people.)

That way it will pay less tax. Ireland’s tax rate is less than half that of United States. Ian Read, Pfizer’s chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal the higher tax rate in the United States caused Pfizer to compete “with one hand tied behind our back.” (Hmm. What's worse than disloyalty is tax dodging. Eeevil Pfizer is avoiding its duty to pony up dough that the Left needs to transfer to those who are more deserving.)

Read said he’d tried to lobby Congress to reduce the corporate tax rate (now 35 percent) but failed, so Pfizer is leaving.

Such corporate desertions (Isn't Dr. Reich's moral disapproval interesting in its selectiveness? Apparently Pfizer is treasonous for fleeing from the oppressive tax system in the US.)

from the United States (technically called “tax inversions”) will cost the rest of us taxpayers some $19.5 billion over the next decade, estimates Congress’s joint committee on taxation. (In other words, the US's punitive tax rate is pushing companies out of the country, and the loss to the Treasury is $19.5 billion. The loss to these companies, and to the the consumer who ends up paying all these taxes, is apparently not relevant.)

Which is fueling demands from Republicans to lower the corporate tax rate.

Donald Trump wants it to be 15 percent.

Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz want to eliminate the corporate tax altogether. (Why this would save the Treasury more money than further corporate tax inversions is unclear.) (Dr. Reich admits his ignorance. He really thinks the economy is a closed system, where taxes or other interventions of the government into the economy have no ripple effects. He doesn't seem to think that a corporation will make changes in their way of doing business as a result, whether by passing on the costs to the consumer, scaling back hiring, delaying the purchase of equipment or facilities, or as Pfizer is doing, leaving for more friendly environs.

It mystifies Dr. Reich. He thinks that government's purpose for the corporation's money is the highest usage of it. Thus, corporations ought to willingly pony up the dough. And when they don't, well, they're disloyal, they're deserting.)

Rather than lower corporate tax rates, an easier fix would be to take away the benefits of corporate citizenship from any company that deserts America. (Because lower taxes are anathema to the Left. They are the sacrament. Under no circumstance can they be lowered. No, we should punish deserting corporations for making sound business decisions like lowering their tax bill.

And as is typical for the Left, the solutions to the problem always involve more government intervention.)

One big benefit is the U.S. patent system that grants companies like Pfizer longer patent protection and easier ways to extend it than most other advanced economies.

In 2013, Pfizer raked in nearly $4 billion on sales of the Prevnar 13 vaccine, which prevents diseases caused by pneumococcal bacteria, from ear infections to pneumonia – for which Pfizer is the only manufacturer.

Other countries wouldn’t allow their patent systems to justify such huge charges.

Neither should we – especially when Pfizer stops being an American company. (Yes, make them pay for their impudence!)

The U.S. government also protects the assets of American corporations all over the world.

In the early 2000s, after a Chinese company replicated Pfizer’s formula for Viagra, the U.S. Trade Representative put China on a “priority watch list” and charged China with “inadequate enforcement” against such piracy.

Soon thereafter the Chinese backed down. Now China is one of Pfizer’s major sources of revenue.

But when Pfizer is no longer American, the United States should stop protecting its foreign assets. (Punish them!)

Nor should Pfizer reap the benefits when the United States goes to bat for American corporations in trade deals.

In the Pacific Partnership and the upcoming deal with the European Union, the interests of American pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer – gaining more patent protection abroad, limiting foreign release of drug data, and preventing other governments controlling drug prices – have been central points of contention.

And Pfizer has been one of the biggest beneficiaries. From now on, it shouldn’t be. (Punish them!)

U.S. pharmaceutical companies rake in about $12 billion a year because Medicare isn’t allowed to use its huge bargaining power to get lower drug prices.

But a non-American company like Pfizer shouldn’t get any of this windfall. From now on, Medicare should squeeze every penny it can out of Pfizer. (Yeeesss, punish them!)

American drug companies also get a free ride off of basic research done by the National Institutes of Health.

Last year the NIH began a collaboration with Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation – subsidizing Pfizer’s appropriation of early scientific discoveries for new medications.

In the future, Pfizer shouldn’t qualify for this subsidy, either. (Oh, baby. Punish them!)

Finally, non-American corporations face restrictions on what they can donate to U.S. candidates for public office, and how they can lobby the U.S. government.

Yet Pfizer has been among America’s biggest campaign donors and lobbyists.

In 2014, it ponied up $2,217,066 to candidates (by contrast, its major competitor Johnson & Johnson spent $755,000). And Pfizer spent $9,493,000 on lobbyists.

So far in the 2016 election cycle, it’s been one of the top ten corporate donors.

Pfizer’s political generosity has paid off – preventing Congress from attaching a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, or from making it easier for generics to enter the market, or from using Medicare’s bargaining power to reduce drug prices.

And the company has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the candidacies of state attorneys general in order to get favorable settlements in cases brought against it.

But by deserting America, Pfizer relinquishes its right to influence American politics. (Oh, yeah! Baby baby baby! PUNISH THEM!)

If Pfizer or any other American corporation wants to leave America to avoid U.S. taxes, that’s their business.

But they should no longer get any of the benefits of American citizenship – because they’ve stopped paying for them.