Corporations are whining about taxes -- still!
For years American corporations have bemoaned their high corporate taxes while fleecing the American people and watching the country fall apart.
We were warned about the potential evil of corporations years ago by Dwight D. Eisenhower as he left office -- telling us to beware of the military-industrial complex and what it would do to our country.
To our freedom. To our happiness and well-being.
Was Eisenhower a visionary?
If not a visionary, he was a pragmatist with a profound understanding of the problems that would come from building a massive corporate-military establishment. The same rule applies to corporations amassing too much power and how that power would slowly erode our rights and freedoms and quell our voices, drowning out reasonable thoughts and actions.
We failed to heed his warning and now find ourselves at a turning point -- in a difficult and weakened position, possibly unable to undo what has already been undone.
Corporations have systematically accumulated power and wealth that, in combination, approaches that of the infamous Robber Barons of the '20s.
And, in doing so -- lobbying to gain tax advantages and to deregulate their respective industries -- are tearing apart the most productive society in history. They continue to take everything they can from the American people adding to our nation's instability.
These manipulative, cold, and heartless organizations incessantly cry about their tax burden despite corporate taxes being irresponsibly low and fiscally damaging for many years. Corporations in the U.S. paid an aggregate effective tax rate of 12.1 percent in 2011 and it could be even lower in 2012, brought down by tax advantages for the multi-national corporations.
Global entities, with borders continuing to gray, are casting aside patriotic loyalties for the almighty dollar.
There is an assault on corporate taxes in two areas and on two levels and the losers will ultimately be the American people -- American taxpayers.
Corporations, claiming to be subject to the second highest tax rate in the industrialized world, have never paid that rate and in many cases have paid nothing -- nada, zilch, nil -- for successive years. They continue to get government subsidies in many industries long after the need for it has gone, ie: big oil, agriculture. Yet they're sniveling for a lower tax rate.
The worst offenders are some of the largest corporations in the world, generating the largest profits in history and receiving the largest loopholes: General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, and Chevron.
Corporations are driven by greed and most have proven to have no moral compass. Fewer and fewer choose good corporate citizenship over greed.
Loopholes?
Many members of Congress talk about eliminating corporate loopholes. Others are demanding lower corporate tax rates if loopholes are reduced. But a revenue neutral tax reform does nothing to reduce the deficit, force corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, improve unemployment, rebuild our infrastructure, improve our declining education system, reduce the power of corporations, or correct the imbalance of tax payments between corporations and 'the people.'
Corporate 'effective tax rates' are lower than most American citizens pay and have been far too long.
Advocating lower corporate tax rates to help corporations compete globally or to lower the deficit is a prevarication of right-wing proportions.
The same thing is true of repatriating foreign profits. Corporations have spent millions lobbying Congress to let them bring the money back at an extremely low rate. It's been tried before and the results were devastating.
With the assistance of Congress multi-national corporations literally cheated the American people out of billions of dollars in taxes in 2004.
They're, with the help of Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ), trying to get away with thievery again asking to bring back over $2,000,000,000,000 at 8.75 percent -- a lower tax rate than Americans in the lowest tax bracket pay each year. Their bill, the Foreign Earnings Reinvestment Act, as written, constitutes another corporate giveaway, another corporate loophole.
Congress is poised to facilitate this corporate robbery unless somebody stops them.
American corporations are sucking this country dry, plundering every valuable asset out of our land and our people. And we're sitting on our lazy asses while Congress helps them. Those in Congress remain silent while their corporate masters hoard record setting profits, allow executives huge pay increases, bonuses, and stock options while squeezing workers for more production on less pay, and tax investors' income at a much lower tax rate than the average American.
Congress gives, Big Oil enormous amounts in the billions in yearly subsidies while Representatives in the House voted to eliminate $2 billion a year from the food stamp program that helps feed hungry families.
Government is not the problem!
The 'real' problem is government helping corporations at the expense of their constituents -- at the expense of the nation. And, the bigger problem is the people that keep electing these corporate surrogates.
We were warned that this would happen! Now get off your lazy asses and do something about it before it's too late.
It's not the loopholes, it's the assholes that create and perpetuate the loopholes!