Rand Paul Objects to Hearings on Apple's Tax Avoidance

While most senators seem to be mad at Apple for avoiding billions of dollars in taxes, Sen. Rand Paul is mad at other senators for being mad at Apple.

The Kentucky Republican ripped into his colleagues Tuesday for holding a hearing about Apple's efforts to avoid paying taxes by setting up off shore subsidiaries that have no workers, according to The Hill.

"I frankly think the committee should apologize to Apple," Paul said during a hearing before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He objected to what he called the "tone and tenor of the hearing."

"I'm offended by the spectacle of dragging in executives from an American company that is not doing anything illegal," he reportedly told his colleagues.

Congressional investigators determined that Apple established subsidiaries overseas that had no workers and were basically run by company executives in the United States. Because they were located offshore, the company paid no taxes on the earnings it said was being produced by the subsidiaries.

Paul blamed the tax avoidance move on Congress, not Apple, because the nation's tax code that allows companies to take advantage of loopholes to reduce their taxes.

"Instead of Apple executives, we should have brought in here today a giant mirror," he said.