(English) CF&P Renews Call to Eliminate Taxpayer

 (WashingtonD.C.Wednesday, October 13, 2010)

 The Center for Freedom and Prosperity is renewing its call to end U.S. taxpayer funding of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The United States currently provides more funding to the OECD than any other nation, yet the Paris-based bureaucracy constantly works against the interests of American taxpayers.), ,

The recent OECD Global Tax Forum, which was attended on behalf of CF&P by Dan Mitchell, Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute, is a good example. The OECD bureaucracy is continuing its attack on low-tax jurisdictions, and even though it was unable to push through any new initiatives, the ongoing harassment of jurisdictions with pro-growth tax policy is counter-productive and a gross misallocation of resources. 

The political environment in Washington is in the midst of a major transformation and this creates an opportunity for CF&P to rejuvenate its efforts to end the use of American taxpayer dollars to subsidize the OECD. “We expect that lawmakers next year will want to demonstrate a new commitment to fiscal responsibility,” said CF&P President Andrew Quinlan. “This will be the time for Congress to step up and stop wasting taxpayer money on this failed bureaucracy.”

Dan Mitchell added that, “OECD bureaucrats are pursuing bad tax policy, pushing for a global tax cartel that would undermine tax reform and lead to higher tax rates.” He concluded by warning that, “It is especially outrageous that OECD officials receive tax-free salaries while advocating what is best characterized as an OPEC for politicians.”

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity also recently released a video highlighting 6 key reasons to halt US funding of the OECD, including: its 1) promotion of a value-added tax in the US, 2) pursuit of an anti-tax competition agenda seeking to establish a global tax cartel, 3) endorsement of failed Keynesian spending in the US, 4) advocation of unpopular Obamacare policies, 5) call for more US spending on everything from welfare to foreign aid, and 6) support of new taxes on energy and financial services.