Apple CEO Tim Cook announced this week that the company would repatriate $252 billion, give or take a few billion, then invest in America and create some American jobs – for a change. This is a result of the massive tax cut Congressional Republicans awarded corporations like Apple that were hoarding trillions in profits overseas. Corporate lobbyists told Congress to lower the tax rate on those overseas caches or companies like Apple wouldn't pay a cent of the taxes they owed on those profits. Congress complied. That is highly productive corporate extortion. As a result, Apple's announcement that it would invest some of the repatriated profits in U.S. operations is tainted. Also sullied are the brags by other corporations that they'll use small parts of their annual tax savings to pay workers one-time bonuses and tiny wage increases – only to turn around and lay off thousands of workers.