Michael Mundaca (who?), Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy, rejected a proposal to lower the tax rate on repatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries from 35% to 5% for a year as an incentive to multinationals to repatiate cash held overseas.  The proposal first surfaced in the run-up to the 2009 stimulus bill, but was left out of the final legislation.  Mundaca said Treasury would only consider the proposal as part of a broader tax reform deal.

Supporters, including Sens. Barbara Boxes (D-CA) and Jon Ensign (R-NV), argue that the multinationals will return as much as $1 trillion dollars for investment in US jobs and generate as much as $50billion of federal tax revenues.  Mundaca noted the same arguments were made for a similar tax holiday in 2004, and there is "no evidence it increased U.S. investment or jobs."

Boxer's state is home to the high tech industry, which is behind a massive lobbying effort for the tax holiday.  Ensign recently announced he will not seek re-election, as he chances declined in the face of Senate and Federal Election Committee ethics investigations.