Progressive Review bits still relevant and painful: Big Business,
sanctioned by bought government, carrying on as if nothing should
change. One can see the need for a renewed-life philosophy.
Natalia
*America's biggest welfare fathers
<http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/26/main-street-tax-cheats/> *
/From Think Progress
/- BANK OF AMERICA: In 2009, Bank of America didn't pay a single penny
in federal income taxes, exploiting the tax code so as to avoid paying
its fair share. "Oh, yeah, this happens all the time," said Robert
Willens, a tax accounting expert interviewed by McClatchy. "If you go
out and try to make money and you don't do it, why should the government
pay you for your losses?" asked Bob McIntyre of Citizens for Tax
Justice. The same year, the mega-bank's top executives received pay
"ranging from $6 million to nearly $30 million."
- BOEING: Despite receiving billions of dollars from the federal
government every single year in taxpayer subsidies from the U.S.
government, Boeing didn't "pay a dime of U.S. federal corporate income
taxes" between 2008 and 2010.
- CITIGROUP: Citigroup's deferred income taxes for the third quarter of
2010 amounted to a grand total of $0.00. At the same time, Citigroup has
continued to pay its staff lavishly. "John Havens, the head of
Citigroup's investment bank, is expected to be the bank's highest paid
executive for the second year in a row, with a compensation package
worth $9.5 million."
- EXXON-MOBIL: The oil giant uses offshore subsidiaries in the Caribbean
to avoid paying taxes in the United States. Although Exxon-Mobil paid
$15 billion in taxes in 2009, not a penny of those taxes went to the
American Treasury. This was the same year that the company overtook
Wal-Mart in the Fortune 500. Meanwhile the total compensation of
Exxon-Mobil's CEO the same year was over $29,000,000.
- GENERAL ELECTRIC: In 2009, General Electric the world's largest
corporation filed more than 7,000 tax returns and still paid nothing
to U.S. government. They managed to do this by a tax code that
essentially subsidizes companies for losing profits and allows them to
set up tax havens overseas. That same year GE CEO Jeffery Immelt who
recently scored a spot on a White House economic advisory board
"earned total compensation of $9.89 million." In 2002, Immelt displayed
his lack of economic patriotism, saying, "When I am talking to GE
managers, I talk China, China, China, China, China....I am a nut on
China. Outsourcing from China is going to grow to 5 billion."
- WELLS FARGO: Despite being the fourth largest bank in the country,
Wells Fargo was able to escape paying federal taxes by writing all of
its losses off after its acquisition of Wachovia. Yet in 2009 the chief
executive of Wells Fargo also saw his compensation "more than double" as
he earned "a salary of $5.6 million
**The real cause of our financial problems
<http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/25/the_republican_shakedown/#more>
**
**Robert Reich, TPM Cafe - *The truth is that while the proximate cause
of America's economic plunge was Wall Street's excesses leading up to
the crash of 2008, its underlying cause -- and the reason the economy
continues to be lousy for most Americans -- is so much income and wealth
have been going to the very top that the vast majority no longer has the
purchasing power to lift the economy out of its doldrums. American's
aren't buying cars (they bought 17 million new cars in 2005, just 12
million last year). They're not buying homes (7.5 million in 2005, 4.6
million last year). They're not going to the malls (high-end retailers
are booming but Wal-Mart's sales are down).
Only the richest 5 percent of Americans are back in the stores because
their stock portfolios have soared. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has
doubled from its crisis low. Wall Street pay is up to record levels. . .
The truth is if the super-rich paid their fair share of taxes,
government wouldn't be broke. If Governor Scott Walker hadn't handed out
tax breaks to corporations and the well-off, Wisconsin wouldn't be in a
budget crisis. If Washington hadn't extended the Bush tax cuts for the
rich, eviscerated the estate tax, and created loopholes for
private-equity and hedge-fund managers, the federal budget wouldn't look
nearly as bad.
And if America had higher marginal tax rates and more tax brackets at
the top - for those raking in $1 million, $5 million, $15 million a year
- the budget would look even better. We wouldn't be firing teachers or
slashing Medicaid or hurting the most vulnerable members of our society.
We wouldn't be in a tizzy over Social Security. We'd slow the rise in
healthcare costs but we wouldn't cut Medicare. We'd cut defense spending
and lop off subsidies to giant agribusinesses but we wouldn't view the
government as our national nemesis.
*
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