In 1936 FDR imposed the Undistributed Profits Tax on American companies who were sitting on cash because of uncertainty in the economy. The general feeling was that they needed a buffer to weather potential changes in the future, either economic changes or new taxes.
It seems that right now American companies are sitting on a trillion dollars or so for the same reason. That feeling would seem justified considering that congress has shut down for the mid-terms and no one knows what the tax levels will be in January.
The state-run media has discovered this so you can bet that the Dems have been thinking about ways to redistribute this money for months. Look for that after the mid-terms of course.