Opinion

Sen. Manchin opposes his daughter’s action

An editorial from The Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin says he would support law changes to prevent unpatriotic “inversions” — such as his daughter’s decision to shift Mylan Pharmaceuticals’ national identity to Holland to duck U.S. taxes.

“I think, basically, inversion should be absolutely repealed,” he told The National Journal this week. “All of them. Get ’em all.”

Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, is CEO of Mylan, which has decided to combine with Abbott Laboratories to form a parent firm in the Netherlands, where corporate taxes are only half as high as in America. The overseas move will let Mylan duck millions in U.S. obligations. Many other U.S. firms have done likewise, eluding about $20 billion yearly in U.S. taxes.

The National Journal called the Mylan move disloyal, because the West Virginia-born drug firm earns most of its profit by selling pills to America’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. When a reporter grilled the West Virginia senator, he replied:

“I’m happy to pass a piece of legislation [that] says if they’re  going to be a drug company that’s selling to Medicare/Medicaid, that they have to be a U.S. citizens. I’d vote for that today!”

When asked if he would introduce such legislation in the Senate, he added:

“I can do that. I’d be happy to. You know the bottom line is that you have to have support for it, but I’m happy to do it. I could take the lead. I can be part of that bill, I can be part of that. And I think very strongly.”

Manchin said his daughter never told him about Mylan’s plan until he read it in newspapers…

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