Tim Pawlenty Is Pretty Sure Bank Of America's Taxes Are Too Damn High (They Are "Zero," Actually)

Corporate tax rates!

I still have fond memories of the 2008 campaign, where Senator John McCain and his sometime-surrogate business super-genius Carly Fiorina would often opine that the corporate tax rates were too damn high. Those two vastly prefer the way they did business in Ireland, where the same tax rates are much lower.

Left out of the discussion was the fact that Ireland actually captured more revenue because they lacked the gaping loopholes that allow certain corporations in the United States to pay nothing in taxes.

Take, for example, Bank of America: they posted great profits, they paid no taxes. And yet presidential aspirant Tim Pawlenty is still pretty sure they need some additional tax relief.

That's how he explained things, anyway, to Think Progress' Lee Fang in a surreal interview, where being confronted with the information that BofA paid nothing in taxes led him to continually call for the lowering of the corporate tax rate.

How does one further lower the taxes of Bank of America? Give them additional taxpayer money? (Actually, that's basically what we're doing for everyone in the International Order Of Bailed-Out Banks Local 212.)

[WATCH]

FANG: Governor, today liberals are demonstrating all over the country in what CBS has called a liberal version of the Tea Party. Their main complaint is that a lot of corporations aren't paying their fair share. For example, Bank of America, in 2009 paid nothing in corporate income taxes, same with ExxonMobil, GE, and a lot of other big corporations. Do you think corporations like Bank of America should pay their fair share? What are your thoughts on that?

PAWLENTY: Well actually the corporate tax rate in Minnesota and around the country is too high. And I think one thing we could and should do is-

FANG: You think zero is too high with Bank of America paying nothing?

PAWLENTY: We have the highest corporate tax rate, or one of them, in the world-

FANG: But they use loopholes and offshore bank accounts to pay nothing.

PAWLENTY: The things I've called for is reducing tax rates and looking at exemptions or special deals within the tax code that give certain companies privileges or benefits. I can't speak individually to any country, company would get in that regard, but I think one goal or direction is to simplify and reduce tax rates and clean out as many of the special deals as possible.

FANG: To be clear, do you think Bank of America pays too much in taxes already?

PAWLENTY: I don't know what Bank of America pays in taxes. I'll just say, setting aside Bank of America, the corporate tax rate in America is too high compared to our competitor nations.

I love that last part, where Pawlenty says, "I don't know what Bank of America pays in taxes." Dude! He just told you what they pay!

Can America afford to have the guy from Memento running the country?

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Comments

[ersf]

10:42 PM on 03/07/2011

How is it that the Tea Party wants to be fooled so bad by political hacks who are working for Corporations who have coopted the language of liberty and individual freedoms, while trying to pull thhe rug out from under the average man?

[Targetdog]

01:23 PM on 03/07/2011

What a maroon!

[thebuzzmanisone]

09:48 PM on 03/06/2011

oh my he is still such a dweeb thank goodness he is not the gov. any more

[jaredbrain]

10:17 AM on 03/05/2011

the only thing that would benefit them more than not paying taxes is if we just handed them a few billion in tax dollars...oh wait

[indjoe]

02:30 AM on 03/05/2011

IT IS UNPAID WAR DEBT THAT KILLING USE, AND
NO ONE WANTS TOO TALK ABOUT IT. YOU CAN NOT
KEEP CUTTING TAXS AND PAY OFF THE DEBT . ANOTHER
100 BILLION THIS YEAR JUST FOR AFGHANISTAN
PLUSE THE ONE TRILLION AREADY OWED, THE
GOP CAN CUT ALL DOMESTIC SPENDING AND WE
STILL BE IN THE WHOLE. THAT WHY THEY WANT TOO
RAID SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND BY RAISING THE
AGE AND NOT PAYING THE BENEFIT, SO THEY CAN USE
THE MONEY FOR THE GENRAL FUND. IT IS CRAZY TOO
FIGHT WARS AND CUT TAXS AT THE SAME TIME. MAN
THE GOP HAS LOST ALL CONTROL OF ANY COMMON SENCE
AT ALL.

[nkurland]

02:14 AM on 03/05/2011

Republicans have been "pretty sure" about a lot of things in the past 10 years. They were pretty sure that the Iraq war would cost less than $50 billion and democratize the middle east. They were pretty sure the Bush tax cuts would stimulate the economy. They were pretty sure health care reform had death panels. And it just goes on and on.

Anyone else seeing the connection between the GOP and economic pablum?

[Madbunny]

01:21 AM on 03/05/2011

Well there we have it folks. Zero is still too much taxes. Now we know exactly what it will take to make the GOP happy. Less than zero taxes, somehow.

[blinkthink]

08:36 PM on 03/04/2011

Doesn't Minnesota feel as though when Pawlenty spoke their IQs dropped 10 points? It's like an insidious fog.

[captaincrawley]

07:08 PM on 03/04/2011

PAWLENTY: "I don't know what Bank of America pays in taxes. I'll just say, setting aside Bank of America, the corporate tax rate in America is too high compared to our competitor nations."

Which "competitor nations" would that be? Bolivia? Lesotho? I always get a laugh out of the righties who are soooo scared that the wealthy will leave if we don't lower their taxes post haste. In every other country in the world, the wealthy seem perfectly able to take care of themselves. Only in America do a large portion of the middle and working classes lose sleep worrying about the sad fate of the wealthy. Only in America, only in America...

[cats530]

01:09 PM on 03/05/2011

"Only in America do a large portion of the middle and working classes lose sleep worrying about the sad fate of the wealthy."

True. That same large portion thinks its suddenly going to win the lottery and join the ranks of the wealthy.

[SoSad1969]

06:58 PM on 03/04/2011

TPaw is about as smart as a sack of hammers. But that goes for most of his ilk. But it's typical republican thought process. Any amount of taxes is too much. We have one of the lowest taxed time in our countries history. Not the lowest but pretty darn close. So sick and tired of seeing tax breaks for the rich and corporations and then the middle class and the poor are the ones that have their programs cut. Reminds me of the cookie analogy. There's 12 cookies. Around the table is the koch brothers, a union member and a teabagger. The 11 cookies are given to the koch brothers and the last cookie is left for the teabagger and union member. The teabagger is told that the union member is trying to take his cookie.

it's all about misdirection. the right is trying to get neighbor to take on neighbor instead of the rest of us against the true crooks at the top. tax the crap out of companies and the rich and even things out a bit. That's not redistribution that's payback. Without regular peoples sacrifices and hard work the rich and corporations wouldn't have made jack. All the successes of the rich are from the sweat and tears of the middle class. And yet again the right rages on to destroy the middle class. They should put the middle class on the endangered species list.

[edgermanJ]

12:11 AM on 03/06/2011

You hit the nail on the head. It's not redistribution, it's having the ones who benefit most from the economic system and the infrastructure it provides paying for it according to the financial benefit they have gained.

[USAFWifey]

06:48 PM on 03/04/2011

This woman is embarrassing, let's hope she decides to run next year!

[7dr361]

05:32 PM on 03/04/2011

little pip squeek will never be president

[indy girl]

09:10 PM on 03/06/2011

too busy hitting the spray tanning booth.

[Hillbilly49]

03:02 PM on 03/04/2011

Republicans believe that teachers are corrupt, greedy and over paid; while Hedge Fund Managers are honest and hardworking Americans; who are overworked, underpaid and under appreciated.




~Hillbilly 49

[UpNorthGuyWI]

03:37 PM on 03/04/2011

I love the teacher ethics in Wisconsin. Calling in sick when they are not, costing the taxpayers money. Teaching the kids a great example.

[Madbunny]

01:19 AM on 03/05/2011

You'd prefer of course that they simply drop trou bend forward and take it in the rear, I should assume.

Speak to the article. Do you think teachers should be allowed to pay zero dollars in taxes?
I do.

[jaredbrain]

10:18 AM on 03/05/2011

the teachers went back after the first week to teach those kids even under the risk of losing their benefits, salary, pensions, or jobs altogether. that is -exactly- the example i want my kids to follow

[TOPCAT711]

02:50 PM on 03/04/2011

Another financial 'genius' from our friends on the right.

[willisbones]

02:32 PM on 03/04/2011

Thanks, Tim. I live in Minnesota and it is embarrassing enough to have to listen to Michele Bachmann's insanity. Now, I have to keep hearing the jibberish from you, too. Thanks, Tim.

[cats530]

01:12 PM on 03/05/2011

I wonder if he was the one responsible for passing the pro-MERS legislation and the other pro-creditor/jail-the-debtors baloney that has gone on in your state. Time to take out the trash next election.