John McCain's Tax Lie
Forgive me for getting a little Rahm Emanuel here, but Sunday's lead story on The Huffington Post is worthy of a middle finger salute and some righteous indignation.
"McCain Slams Stimulus -- Joins GOP Leaders to Attack Stimulus Package". Well, okay. I'm all for healthy debate, even if it is with a party that turned itself inside-out during the last decade to become the unaccountable, freedom-snatching, bloat-ridden, free-spending, debt-driven, war-mongering party it is now. It would be unfair to hold every Republican responsible for the failure of the Bush administration even if, like McCain, their Senate votes supported Bush 90% of the time.
Putting aside the fact that the majority of Americans voted against furthering the Republican agenda, elected representatives from the Republican party still represent millions of Americans. Their voices need to be heard, and their ideas deserve serious consideration.
However, when an idea is not just flawed, but based on a pervasive lie, it needs to be called out until facts overcome propaganda and truth rings from the rafters. In McCain's case, the lie is that businesses are overwhelmed by taxes, and that a business tax cut is necessary to stimulate the economy.
"We need to make tax cuts permanent, and we need to make a commitment that there'll be no new taxes," Mr. McCain said. "We need to cut payroll taxes. We need to cut business taxes."
While McCain was hawking lower business taxes during his run for President, many of us had already learned the ugly truth. I wrote a post about it in October 2008.
In a stunning report released by the United States Government Accountability Office in July 2008, Americans learned that many corporations, including those with assets over $250M, reported no tax liabilities. In fact, from 1998-2005, 72% of foreign-controlled domestic corporations (FCDC's), and 55% of US-controlled corporations (USCC's), reported zero tax liability for at least one of those years. In total, two-thirds of the corporations doing business in the U.S. paid no taxes from 1998-2005, while collectively reporting $2.5 trillion dollars in sales.
In that article, I pointed out that the cuts McCain wanted were something of a manufactured myth, not just because so many corporations paid no taxes at all, but because the majority of those who did pay, paid nowhere near the 35% McCain claimed.
McCain and other Republicans continue pushing the mirage of high corporate taxes despite the nuts and bolts of facts as presented by the government's own accounting office. At a time when they should be demanding an end to the loopholes and special breaks that allowed so many corporations to exist tax-free, they are instead pushing for more corporate tax breaks.
One has to wonder what America's bottom-line might look like if all the corporations in question paid taxes at even 10% during the last decade. My guess is that it might have been enough to fund the $700B+ business bailout that the Senate voted for, despite the the fact that the majority of Americans disapproved. We're tired of paying the price for corporate negligence and greed, a point that is driven home every time we hear about multi-million dollar bonuses, million dollar office makeovers, or lavish parties.
There are small businesses -- those without teams of attorneys and accountants at their disposal -- that might benefit from tax breaks and other incentives. If the corporations that paid no taxes at all paid their share, we might be able to give relief to those small businesses that are struggling due to the economy, and not due to their own bad business practices.
With our country in crisis, this is not the time for smokescreens, mirages, and propaganda. It is time to face the truth, hold businesses and people accountable, and give relief where it is needed -- and not just where it's politically expedient or advantageous to do so.
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Old John is neither smarter nor younger than he was during the election. It is time for john to go back to Arizona and visit with Cindy; she can keep him out of trouble.
I am absolutely no fan of the Republican agenda, but here is a thought I picked up at a public forum which deserves broader recognition.
I think the argument can be made that corporations, in fact all business entities, do not pay any taxes at all, consumers do. Corporate gains taxes are treated like other costs that come with producing goods or providing services. Paying taxes is the same as paying for electricity or product shipping. In the end it's the consumer who pays for it because those goods and services are more expensive than they would be without these corporate gains taxes.
Then where should the taxes be collected if not from corporate gains? At the public forum the idea was brought forward to let value added tax do the trick. It is much more transparent and reliable, it's much harder to cheat.
And it's the more regressive tax structure! Simply tax businesses on their revenues, minus acceptable deductions for operating expenses. Yes, it will be passed on to the consumer, but it's still more fair. At the same time, ensure that the highest part of PERSONAL taxes is very high, so that the CEOs and others will keep their several hundred million dollar salaries in the company, and it can hire more people then!
Brilliant idea! Better to keep the money in the company than to have it taxed away on your wages and bonuses (boni). Thank you for your addition. :-)
I find it even more telling that he was talking about cutting the payroll taxes. Yeah, the business taxes and all, but that's old hat, and we all expected him (or those exactly like him....) to come out against those. But the PAYROLL taxes..... That's a horse of a COMPLETELY different color!!
The payroll taxes, of course, are the 6.2 percent that you pay on every dollar earned up to $106,000 for Social Security and the 1.45 percent that you pay on all income earned for Medicare. There's another tax taken out of your check, but that's the federal income tax withholding, NOT a payroll tax!
Most people are not aware that self-employed workers pay not only the employee share of Social Security and Medicare tax, AND the employer share. The Social Security benefits received by self-employed workers at retirement are the same as those received by employees.
Unemployment taxes might be considered payroll taxes, although they are not included on an employee check stub. These taxes are levied at rates varying from 0.002 to 2.75 or more on $7000. to $10,000. wages, depending on the amount paid out by the state in unemployment benefits.
True points all. I just wasn't counting the employer share of them, because no one actually sees that reflected in their check. I pay my portion of the OASDI and FICA taxes, and my employer pays their portion, but that's not coming out of my normal pay. Yes, it would if I were self employed, but..... And as far as the unemployment insurance, that doesn't even show up on my pay stub, much less coming out of my check.
GREAT article!
it's just politics as usual. i wonder what it's going to take for real change to happen?
Do you suppose Barney frank and Dodd were liars when they took money from and said Fannie Mae was solid? Could it be that ole pot and kettle thing again?
That's what the republicans counts on. Tell a lie enough , over and over again you will get people to beleive it. They are very good at it. Look what they did to McCain when he was running against Bush for president. People beleived their lies and McCain dropped out of the race. That's why McCain was able to forgive the republicans when they said he fathered a black baby.Agter a while he kissed their booths and got good again. Remember what he and Palin try to say about PRESIDENT OBAMA. But it didn't worked that time. The american people are biginning to see who the RNC really are.
Thank you. Thank you!
I wrote about this on my own blog during the election. I am for meaningful tax cuts and major tax reform, even including cutting the corporate tax rate. The tax rate /on paper/ is terribly high. However, the loopholes mean that corporations and wealthy individuals who can afford tax shelters pay far less than their rate on paper unless they are scrupulously honest individuals above and beyond the norm. As a result, their tax burden is shifted back to the middle and working class who cannot afford the same dodges and shelters.
Close the loopholes first, see what the effects of the actual tax rates are. When we can actually see them, then we can talk about whether corporate tax cuts are necessary.
Great article.
HuffPost's Pick
I was a professional tax preparer for 43 years before retiring a couple of years ago.
In my experience I know that most people do not understand the graduated tax rate tables. A person who is in a 35% tax bracket does not pay 35% tax on his adjusted gross income. He pays the same tax on $20K that everyone pays. He pays taxes at the same rate as all others on the next $25K, and on the next $50K and on up until he might be paying 35% on $5K. (I don't have a current withholding chart to have accurate figures)
With many exemptions and what people refer to as loopholes, and if you add in payroll taxes, it is possible for a wage earner with little unearned income such as interest, dividends, capital gains to pay a higher rate of taxes on $75K, that a person with $750K income that is largely unearned income.
Exactly. Just as their are multi-million dollar corporation that paid less in taxes than a middle class household, their are trust fund beneficiaries who pay far less than their working counterparts.
But but but... all the Republican (and corporate; same thing) talking points say that we're taxing companies out of business!
You mean they might be... they might... they... they might be...
FIBBING!???!
Say it ain't so...
Nope. I'm saying that they are flat out L-Y-I-N-G!!!!!!!!
I am all for giving the corporations a tax cut as long as all the loopholes and deductions were closed up. We should be requiring them to pay at least 10% even if the loopholes and deductions let them off the hook. McCain is back to the lying he indulged in during the campaign. Bush's tax cuts (which McCain, when he was still sane, was against) should be repealed but I can wait till 2010.
Bush gave us tax cuts, lied to get us to into a war and then borrowed the money to pay for that war rather then asking the country to sacrifice for it. We are now in dire financial straits and the McCain's answer is more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. You lost, McCain, let the dems have a chance at fixing this.
Meanwhile small businesses like mine grossing less than a million get hit hard by taxes at the end of the year. 10k for 2007 fy and still not done paying it off. Business is so bad we're taking on jobs making just 200-300 profit just to pay the phone bill. Where's our help in this whole thing?
If we dropped all taxes down to10% and passed laws that everyone and every business pays the 10 percent including the big corporations, no exemptions on anything, then we would have more money in the coffer's than the way it' is now.
That's probably to easy for government to understand, as the lobbyist might quit coming around those congress offices.
How about cutting the substtdizes to oil and gas?
No financial help to Israel and Palestine for warring with one another.
The list could go on and on, but you see where it's going.
For some of us, we believe that God asks 10% of our income, and gets about 3%. Government ought to be able to get along just fine on 10% or less.
If all of the corporations that snatched up the free money before Bush left and accountability became the word with Congress and the bailout money, had to list the amount of taxes they have paid on average over the past ten years we might learn a whole lot about what has gone on and why Bush and Cheney were their best friends. There hasn't been much accountability except for the automakers with the bailout already spent so it appears to be we don't need to know what no one has even looked at. hat happened to the first load of cash? Why is it GOP still screams for big business like they do when big business hasn't paid any share of taxes for years. Bush and Cheney took very god care of them.
"Bush and Cheney took very god care of them." A typo that was most appropiate.
McCain and other Republicans are liars? Shocking!
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