Jon Stewart was mightily pissed off last night over the story that GE essentially paid nothing in federal corporate taxes last year.
And at the same time that these greedy public workers are living their champ-ale wishes and spam-viar dreams, we're making it harder and harder for good honest corporate citizens to create jobs here.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH, R-UT (11/17/2010): ... yet we're at 35%, the highest corporate tax rate in the world ...
DANA PERINO (4/14/2010): When it comes to creating jobs in the country, if you're a corporation, where would you rather be? And it might not be here.
REP. JOHN CAMPBELL, R-CA (12/10/2010): ... we should be lowering the corporate tax rate ...
Can you blame a company like GE for not wanting to do business in America, when it has to pay 35% of its profits back to America?
JAKE TAPPER, ABC NEWS (3/25/2011): Despite $14 billion in worldwide profits, General Electric is paying no federal taxes.
Ah-zah-zah-zah-zah-whaaaaaa??? But I thought the corporate tax rate needed to be lowered. And I'm not sure you can lower it from nothing.
JAKE TAPPER (3/25/2011): In fact, for 2010, GE got a $3.2 billion tax benefit.
I stand corrected. That is a corporate tax rate of, hold on, $3.2 billion... negative 60%! You know, the latest data we have from 2005 says that about two-thirds of United States controlled corporations paid no corporate income tax on a combined profit of, let's say, a googa-trillion.
But wait. We've been told the only reason corporations aren't creating more jobs here is the punitive corporate tax rate, fueled by our workers' demands for a "Western" standard of living. But apparently, even with their negative 60% tax rate, GE has cut a fifth of its American jobs in the last nine years, while boosting jobs overseas. You know, I know the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, but what I didn't realize is that those people are ASSHOLES.
Video and transcript below the fold.
We're just having a little fun, a little spoonful of sugar to help, as we announce the second segment in our ongoing series, I Give Up. America's in financial trouble, and I think we know why.
SEN. RON JOHNSON, R-WI (2/23/2011): I think we have to re-balance the whole collective bargaining arrangement with public sector unions. They're bankrupting states.
MIKE HUCKABEE (2/23/2011): The public employee unions are going to bankrupt states.
MARY MATALIN (2/17/2011): We have to push back, pull back, on these greedy and parasitic and selfish public employee union dudes and programs.
Down with greedy parasitic unions! Teacher, fire, cop, no more unions! And at the same time that these greedy public workers are living their champ-ale wishes and spam-viar dreams, we're making it harder and harder for good honest corporate citizens to create jobs here.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH, R-UT (11/17/2010): ... yet we're at 35%, the highest corporate tax rate in the world ...
DANA PERINO (4/14/2010): When it comes to creating jobs in the country, if you're a corporation, where would you rather be? And it might not be here.
REP. JOHN CAMPBELL, R-CA (12/10/2010): ... we should be lowering the corporate tax rate ...
Can you blame a company like GE for not wanting to do business in America, when it has to pay 35% of its profits back to America?
JAKE TAPPER, ABC NEWS (3/25/2011): Despite $14 billion in worldwide profits, General Electric is paying no federal taxes.
Ah-zah-zah-zah-zah-whaaaaaa??? But I thought the corporate tax rate needed to be lowered. And I'm not sure you can lower it from nothing.
JAKE TAPPER (3/25/2011): In fact, for 2010, GE got a $3.2 billion tax benefit.
I stand corrected. That is a corporate tax rate of, hold on, $3.2 billion... negative 60%! You know, the latest data we have from 2005 says that about two-thirds of United States controlled corporations paid no corporate income tax on a combined profit of, let's say, a googa-trillion.
But wait. We've been told the only reason corporations aren't creating more jobs here is the punitive corporate tax rate, fueled by our workers' demands for a "Western" standard of living. But apparently, even with their negative 60% tax rate, GE has cut a fifth of its American jobs in the last nine years, while boosting jobs overseas. You know, I know the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people, but what I didn't realize is that those people are ASSHOLES. Fortunately, our top man is on the case.
BARACK OBAMA (5/4/2009): We will stop letting American companies that create job overseas take deductions on their expenses when they do not pay any American taxes on their profits.
Hee-ah, hee-ah! The people have a champion! And he's gonna be hoping ass and taking change! GE CEO Jeff Immelt is about to find out why we elected this anti-business socialist Marxist Kenyan warrior!
BARACK OBAMA (1/21/2011): Jeff Immelt, he understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy. ... And I am so proud and pleased that Jeff has agreed to chair this panel, my counsel on jobs and competitiveness, 'cause we think GE has something to teach businesses all across America.
Yeah! You ripped Immelt a new... wait, chairmanship?? I... GIVE UP!!! What's GE going to teach businesses all across America, to bolster their tax department with former officials from the Treasury and the IRS and all relevant committees, and make it 975 people? Who says they're not creating jobs?
Of course, GE still has some workers in America, like NBC Nightly News. And the night this story broke, they were probably all over it like.... (listens to earpiece) Nothing? They didn't... they didn't report at all that GE had... no? Well, to be fair, Libya, Japanese radiation, there's an awful lot going on in the world, and I imagine their Friday night newscast was chock full of the type of urgent news that would preclude a more esoteric financial story.
LESTER HOLT, NBC NIGHTLY NEWS (3/25/2011): The Oxford English Dictionary, the most formal and proper of them all, has added some decidedly informal words to its lexicon tonight. ... LOL and OMG ... whassup ... taquito ... muffin top made the list. According to Oxford, it's "the flesh that protrudes above the waistband of a tight pair of pants". Or what happens to you if you eat too many taquitos.
Ha. Haha. Hahaha. Hahahaha... OMG, I GIVE UP!!! We'll be right back.
Now, granted, the Oxford English dictionary segment took only 36 seconds total on Friday's broadcast, but Jon's correct that they never mentioned the GE story. To be fair, Lawrence O'Donnell DID, in fact, spend
an entire segment talking about GE's $0 in taxes on last Thursday night's show. But for our favorite hosts on MSNBC, that seemed to be it. (Sorry folks, like it or not, neither Rachel nor Ed has said one word about this on their shows since the New York Times story on GE came out that day.)
Now, as much as some folks here like to bash them, ABC News and the New York Times did a pretty job covering this story. What Jon left out is that the biggest reason for GE's $0 in taxes is because $9 billion of that $14 billion profit came from offshore, and so couldn't be taxed. I think a great question to ask any and all Republican politicians is, "Do you think it's fair that a U.S.-based corporation doesn't have to pay ANY federal taxes on profits it makes overseas?"
(BTW, FactCheck.org claims the 2005 energy bill actually led to a tax increase for oil companies. Are they correct?)
Also, Wyatt Cenac looked at the relationship between the press and Washington after the story about a reporter being put into a storage closet during a Joe Biden fundraiser (also mentioned in Monday's open thread). And Jon had University of Texas-San Antonio political science professor Mansour El-Kikhia, who escaped from Libya, on to talk about what's happening in Libya. Oh, and there's a fucking deadly cobra on the loose somewhere in New York City.
Meanwhile, Stephen looked at various measures some Republican governors are trying to implement that may or may not have anything to do with their state budget, and focused one segment on Maine's Tea Party Governor Paul LePage for removing that mural depicting labor workers.
He then had on
Michael Moore to talk about those darn labor unions.