The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from Paul Ryan

Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to host a fundraiser for Rep. Paul Ryan on June 28 in California — the latest show of solidarity that the open-border-touting Cook has shown with the speaker of the House.

Cook is the overseer of Apple’s huge profits, gained through foreign and domestic tax loopholes — not to mention employing immigrants over Americans in Silicon Valley. In March of last year, he called religious liberty protections “dangerous.” Cook is also well-known for his outspoken support of gay marriage, open borders, an amnesty-laden immigration reform effort, and an increase in the number of legal immigrants brought in on H-1B visas.

But Apple has much to gain financially from doing what Cook calls “right and just.”

“If you believe as I do, advocate and push for immigration reform that recognizes basic human rights and human dignity,” Cook said during a speech to the United Nations in 2013. “Both of these are great for the American economy, but do not do them because they are economically sound, although they are. Do them because they are right and just.”

But Apple has much to gain financially from doing what Cook calls “right and just.” Ryan has supported immigration reform efforts that would boost the number of H1-B visas — those for highly skilled foreign workers — given out to companies like Apple. Those visas allow a company like Apple to fill its skilled positions with cheaper foreign workers, who are also reliant on keeping their job in order to remain in the country, and are thus more controllable than Americans.

Apple’s filings state, “Apple Inc. has filed 4,020 labor condition applications for H-1B visa and 1,316 labor certifications for green card from fiscal year 2013 to 2015. Apple was ranked 20 among all visa sponsors,” as Breitbart reported in November. The San Francisco Chronicle noted that in 2015, Apple hired 1,349 H-1B visa holders. The unemployment rate among American workers in California, where most of Apple’s U.S. based jobs are located, is 6.3 percent, nearly a point higher than the national average.

Aside from his interest in opening the floodgates of immigration, Cook has an interest in maintaining the current tax code — which is stocked with the loopholes Apple uses to essentially bypass paying over $59.2 billion in U.S. taxes. Some of Apple’s ability to avoid coughing up U.S. taxes is based on the company’s opportunity to hold cash offshore.

In October 2015, Apple held $181.1 billion in offshore accounts, according to a study published by Citizens for Tax Justice. And Apple, along with other multinational corporations, may have cost the U.S. roughly $90 billion in lost revenue as of 2015.

“Politicians who respond to proposals to fund these programs by saying that ‘we can’t afford it’ are simply saying, ‘I’d rather cut Apple’s tax bill than educate our children.'”

“Losing $90 billion of potential tax revenues every year is a very big deal,” Neil Buchanan, a professor at George Washington University, told Ars Technica. Buchanan went on to note that money could be used to make more American children into the type of highly skilled workers Apple imports.

“That money could be used to reverse recent cuts in Head Start, and/or assistance to state governments to fund education at all levels,” Buchanan said, “Politicians who respond to proposals to fund these programs by saying that ‘we can’t afford it’ are simply saying, ‘I’d rather cut Apple’s tax bill than educate our children.'”

A complex combination of offshoring and corporate tax loopholes have enabled Apple to lower its effected U.S. tax rate on some of its income to as low as 3.7 percent, according to a report from Business Insider.

“[Apple] would owe $59.2 billion in US taxes if these profits were not officially held offshore for tax purposes. This means that Apple has paid a minuscule 2.3 percent tax rate on its offshore profits,” Citizens for Tax Justice concluded. “That confirms that Apple has been getting away with paying almost nothing in taxes on the huge amount of profits it has booked in Ireland.”

The coziness between Cook and Ryan to be put on display at the June 28 fundraiser does not bode well for proponents of tax reform to level the playing field for ordinary Americans and small businesses who cannot afford the kind of lobbyists or lavish fundraisers Apple boasts.