Bad Deeds for 3-30-2011

 

U.S. Corporations Not Paying Taxes, But Getting Paid by Taxpayers – America’s largest corporation, General Electric, did not pay any taxes on their $15 billion in profits last year and instead got a $3 billion tax refund.1 But it doesn’t end at G.E….

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont put out a Top 10 list of corporations with high profits and no taxes in recent years including Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Boeing and Carnival Cruise Lines. Over the last two years, Wells Fargo earned $37 billion in profits but got a $4 billion tax refund. 2 And Hewlett-Packard reported over $9 billion in profits last year, but paid the same amount in taxes as someone earning just $30,000 a year.3

This is not about business incentives, which are fine and can be valuable in helping to kick start the economy. This is about a system gone completely off the rails in which corporations are getting an unnecessary free ride at the expense of everyone else.

Congress is on the verge of shutting down over Republicans’ demands for deep, draconian cuts to everything from public broadcasting and reproductive health to college loans and programs that feed poor children. So why aren’t increases in revenue, beginning with basic Tax Fairness for corporations, on the table too? Conservatives seem hell-bent on slashing funding for every program under the sun that helps ordinary Americans, including Social Security and Medicaid, just so they can protect corporations’ free ride.

The New York Times reported that corporate taxes made up only 6.6 percent of all federal revenue in 2009, but were 30 percent of total revenues the mid-1950s. It’s not hard to see that closing loopholes and ending billions of dollars of giveaways in corporate welfare could solve most if not all of our budget problems. Don’t let this Tea Party Congress pay for corporate welfare on the backs of poor and middle-class families. Demand Tax Fairness Now!

While Republicans, the media and too many conservative Democrats continue to play to the false narrative that deep cuts are necessary, including cuts to essential retirement and health care programs, everyone is ignoring the real elephant in the room: that profit-swollen corporations are shorting America and its taxpayers billions of dollars every year. Congress can show they are really serious about budgets and deficits by making corporations pay their fair share, and making it the top priority over cuts.

Call on Congress to collect corporations’ fair share in taxes before forcing through cuts that will harm millions of Americans.

 

Republican Lawmakers in Arizona Want to Cut Taxes for the Rich, Raise Taxes on Everyone Else – Republican Lawmakers in Arizona want to change to a one-size-fits-all income tax, which would raise taxes for 88 percent of Arizona filers while cutting them for the 12 percent with a taxable income of more than $100,000 a year, a legislative analysis shows.

Last Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee approved the bill on a 4-2 vote. Last week, the House of Representatives gave it a party-line OK, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.

 

Republican Presidential Candidate Says ‘I Would Not’ Appoint A Muslim In My Administration – Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said that if elected president, he would not appoint a Muslim in his administration. Cain should check his understanding of the U.S. Constitution, which states in Article 4:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

 

Fox News “Reporters” Knowlingly Lied On-Air About Obama – In newly uncovered audio, a Fox News executive boasts that he lied repeatedly during the closing days of the 2008 presidential campaign when he speculated on-air “about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism.”

Speaking in 2009 onboard a pricey Mediterranean cruise sponsored by a right-wing college, Fox Washington managing editor Bill Sammon, who is also a Fox News vice president, said the following:

Last year, candidate Barack Obama stood on a sidewalk in Toledo, Ohio, and first let it slip to Joe the Plumber that he wanted to quote, ‘spread the wealth around,’ ” said Sammon. “At that time, I have to admit, that I went on TV on Fox News and publicly engaged in what I guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism, a premise that privately I found rather far-fetched.

Sammon’s “mischief” wasn’t limited to his on-air appearances. Sammon also pushed Fox News colleagues to play the socialism card. On October 27, 2008, Sammon sent an email to staffers highlighting what he described as “Obama’s references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists.”

 

Monsanto Dictating What Types of Seeds Farmers Can Plant (and Thus What Types of Food We Can Eat) – Monsanto has been able to control important market access for family farmers. Today their power has grown too great, they own more than 90% of the GMO seed genetics in the world and this is having a harmful impact on farmer’s right to choose what type of seeds they want to plant and how American consumers want their food produced. Monsanto’s excessive market share harms farmers, the environment, innovation and our democracy.

Last year the Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Agriculture held a series of 5 workshops investigating anti-competitive practices in the food and agricultural sectors. Nowhere are these abuses more prevalent than in the extreme market share enjoyed by the seed and chemical company Monsanto, which has a virtual stranglehold on seed supplies in crucial sectors that has severely limited farmer’s choice in what traits they can buy. Monsanto’s control of the seed market is so high that 93% of soybeans, some 82% of corn, 93% of cotton and 95% of sugar beets grown in the U.S. contain Monsanto’s patented genes.

Let President Obama and the Department of Justice know that you care about organic integrity by following this link from Food Democracy Now.

Regards,

Jim