Trump saves Carrier jobs, not by taxing company but by providing tax cuts

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 Trump saves Carrier jobs

Lottery to be created to deal with all the companies begging to be treated like Carrier

In an apparent fulfillment of one of his most controversial campaign promises, President-elect Donald Trump took credit for saving 1,000 jobs in Indiana as Carrier Corporation announced it would not move those jobs to Mexico.

Trump, who cited Carrier (a subsidiary of United Technologies) again and again on the campaign trail, threatening to phone executives at the company and to hit them with 35 percent tariffs on any furnaces and air-conditioners they imported from Mexico, never had to impose those heinous tariffs. Instead, the deal was closed the old-fashioned way: with $7 million in taxpayer funded “economic development” incentives to keep production in Indiana.

In a scathing Washington Post Op-Ed today, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who ran unsuccessfully against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, said, “We need a president who can stand up to big corporations, not fold to their demands.”

In his piece, Sanders pointed out that the deal keeps less than 1,000 of the 2,100 jobs in America that were previously scheduled to be transferred to Mexico by Carrier, writing:

“In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly give the company tax and regulatory favors that the corporation has sought. Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to ‘pay a damn tax.’ He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed? How’s that for punishing corporations that shut down in the United States and move abroad?”

Sanders went on to say, “he (Trump) has signaled to every corporation in America that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for business-friendly tax benefits and incentives, going on to predict, “Even corporations that weren’t thinking of offshoring jobs will most probably be reevaluating their stance this morning.’

Sanders could be prescient. In an unprecedented event, 127 of the Fortune top 200 companies have announced this morning that they are offshoring tens of thousands of jobs unless President-elect Trump gives them a deal like the one he gave Carrier. And, indications are that there will be many more companies doing the same.

Sources within the Trump transition team believe that this is only the beginning and said Mr. Trump is acting expeditiously to meet demand.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, head of the Trump transition team announced today that it is creating a lottery in order to fairly deal with the soon to be thousands of requests for government incentives aimed at preventing offshoring of U.S. corporate jobs.

In announcing the lottery, Mr. Pence said, “We are serious about keeping jobs in America, no matter what it costs the taxpayers. And, in order to handle the demands of all the companies who threaten to move production overseas unless they receive government handouts, we are creating a lottery system which, each week, will choose the company that will receive the week’s handout.”

Sources within the Trump transition team have indicated that the lottery, to be named “Make America Great Again Powerball,” will be televised live from the White House every Wednesday at 9pm Eastern time. The show will be hosted by Ivanka Trump, with President Trump himself picking the winning Powerball.

Mark Burnett, the producer of Mr. Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice TV show, will also produce the Powerball program but has not indicated yet whether the president will pick the ball from a traditional Powerball drum like this one:

or from a more Trumpian place: