It's kind of questionable that transferring properly earned and taxed funds from another country into the US makes the US suddenly want to tax the funds.
This also has consequences. If the best place for Apple to invest some of its money is the US, but the tax makes it less profitable, Apple may choose to invest that money in a different country instead. So the tax code encourages US countries to invest overseas profits into overseas investments.
No - I don't believe this is true in the sense you mean it.
Effectively for corp. taxes - US companies are indeed 'double taxed'.
This means US companies are incented to leave zillions overseas and not bring it back to America.
The US tax code basically ignores the fact that the rest of the world exists. Most countries tax codes have to deal with the fact there is such a thing as 'international markets'.
The terrible thing is - there is any easy fix. Any President could pull it off I think.
If the US got rid of double taxation, and reduced the corporate tax rate - I think most business leaders would accept the closing of all the crazy loopholes.
However I have no sympathy for their complaints that it is too expensive to repatriate the money. It seems unfair to expect the law should change because you made the decision to accumulate money outside of the country to avoid paying taxes that would otherwise be due. I might be naive expecting parity but just like everyone else corporations should pay their way.