Carnival Cruises should start paying its fair share, according to US Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
You see, Carnival smartly registers its boats in foreign ports, so they only pay only 0.6% a year in US taxes.
Yet, every time a Carnival ship has a problem at sea, who do you think comes running to the rescue? The US Coast Guard. And it's costing US taxpayers millions.
Well, Senator Rockefeller has had enough, and is demanding that Carnival start paying its own way.
A Whopping 90 Distress Calls from Carnival Cruises
If Carnival ships are going to have a whopping 90 distress calls over a five year period, costing US taxpayers millions – while Carnival pays next to nothing in US taxes because it doesn't consider it's an American company – then Carnival can start paying for its excessive number of rescues, says Rockefeller.
Carnival Cruise Ship
Rockefeller said in a letter to Carnival that even after so many accidents, "I see no evidence that the company has undertaken any meaningful course of corrective action to improve its safety record." In other words, it's Carnival's fault that the Coast Guard and US Navy have to spend millions bailing them out of trouble, so Carnival should pay for it.
US Taxpayers Paid $3.3m for A Single Carnival Cruise Rescue
And the costs are darn high. Rockefeller says that for one recent Carnival rescue it cost the US Coast Guard and US Navy $1.5 million and $1.8 million respectively.
Carnival responded and basically told the Senator to shove it.
In recent months, Carnival Cruise lines have been in the news a lot for all of the wrong reasons.
Last year, they came up with a nutty excuse for banning drag queens on their drag cruises because of "9/11 anti-terrorism policies." Uh huh. And earlier this year, the "fun cruise" was dubbed the "poop cruise," following problems at sea that left their ship adrift for a week.
rest http://americablog.com/2013/04/carnival-cruises-safety-taxes-cost.html
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