Apple CEO Tim Cook is  appearing before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations  today to answer charges that his company has avoided paying billions of dollars in taxes through the use of overseas tax shelters and loopholes in the corporate tax code. An investigation by the subcommittee found that Apple has shifted tens of billions of dollars of two subsidiaries in Ireland, while claiming that neither subsidiary is a tax resident of any country.

As Congress gets ready for “ Round 2 ” of the Fiscal Showdown—yet another manufactured budget crisis that will unfold during the month of March and over the course of this year—Republicans are resisting proposals to make this crisis go away once and for all by closing tax loopholes for Wall Street and the richest 2% of Americans.

A Senate bill introduced this week would prevent some of the worst tax-dodging tactics by corporations that use offshore tax havens and also raise about $155 billion in additional revenue over 10 years.

If you listen to anti-worker politicians on the right, you’d think the answer to the nation’s ills lies in tax cuts, and not just the extension of the Bush tax cuts for America’s wealthiest human citizens. Corporate tax cuts are often hailed as the solution to America’s jobs crisis.

A loophole in our nation’s tax laws allows multinational companies and hedge funds to shelter enormous sums of money from taxes by creating offshore identities and using tax-haven banks.

Here’s one contributor to the deficit Republicans don’t want to talk about. Loopholes in our tax laws allow multinational companies and hedge funds to shelter enormous sums of money from taxes by creating offshore identities and using tax-haven banks. This practice costs nearly $100 billion in taxes each year, according to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Momentum is building as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) gears up to hold hearings next week on its proposed rule designed to ensure a fair process  for workers who want to vote on whether to form a union. More members of Congress and academics have joined a growing group of working people and workers’ rights advocates in voicing their support for the rule changes.