Google, Apple Lobby for Tax Holiday

Google and Apple can put aside their differences for one thing at least: lowering taxes. The two companies, along with Cisco Systems, are leading a push for a tax holiday on more than $1 trillion in offshore profits. The companies want to redo a 2004 holiday that allowed them to bring home offshore earnings at a reduced tax rate. But analysts say the 2004 holiday rewarded companies that dodged U.S. taxes by parking them overseas, and that those companies spent the bonus money on buying back stock and not on hiring and investment. To push for the break, Apple, Google, and Cisco have hired more than 160 lobbyists, at least 60 of which have once worked for a sitting member of the House or Senate.