Many folks around the country are just discovering the
new Democratic Presidential Candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). They are learning Sanders has been on an incredibly bold mission to protect the American people while exposing and bringing to an end unfair government tax benefits for the country's most wealthy, greedy, and corrupt.
In 2012, during the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns, Bernie Sanders stepped it up even more. That June, before Congress, the senator delivered one of his most impassioned speeches. Some call it one of his best. In October of that same year, Sanders released a report exposing the top 'down and dirty' corporate tax dodgers in the land. Before naming names, Sanders did a little pre-slam in a brief letter, addressing a group of 80 CEOs. These extremely wealthy individuals where trying their damnedest to pressure Congress into trading Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid - for more tax breaks and benefits. Bernie Sanders writes:
These are some of the same CEOs who head corporations that:
*Received a total taxpayer bailout of more than $2.5 trillion from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department and nearly caused the economy to collapse just four years ago;
*Outsourced hundreds of thousands of American jobs to China and other low wage countries, forcing their workers to receive unemployment insurance and other federal benefits;
*Avoided at least $34.5 billion in taxes by setting up more than 600 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other offshore tax havens since 2008;
*And a dozen of these companies paid no corporate income taxes in at least one year since 2008, while receiving more than $6.4 billion in tax refunds from the IRS, after making billions in profits.
In other words, these are some of the same people who have significantly caused the deficit to explode over the last four years.
And here are the 18 CEOs Sanders labeled
job destroyers in his report. The list below only touches on each company. The
Top Corporate Dodgers report, Sanders penned, goes into further detail.
1. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $1.9 billion tax refund.
2. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $278 million tax refund.
3. JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $416
billion.
4. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $3.3 billion tax refund.
5. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $705 million tax refund.
6. Boeing CEO James McNerney, Jr.
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? None. $124 million tax refund.
8). Honeywell International CEO David Cote
Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $34 million tax refund.
7. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Amount of federal income taxes Microsoft would have owed if offshore tax havens
were eliminated? $19.4 billion.
9. Corning CEO Wendell Weeks
Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $4 million tax refund.
10. Time Warner CEO Glenn Britt
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $74 million tax refund.
11. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $55 million tax refund.
12. Deere & Company CEO Samuel Allen
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $1 million tax refund.
13. Marsh & McLennan Companies CEO Brian Duperreault Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $90 million refund.
14. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs
Amount of federal income taxes Qualcomm would have owed if offshore tax havens
were eliminated? $4.7 billion.
15. Tenneco CEO Gregg Sherill
Amount of federal income taxes Tenneco would have owed if offshore tax havens
were eliminated? $269 million.
16. Express Scripts CEO George Paz
Amount of federal income taxes Express Scripts would have owed if offshore tax
havens were eliminated? $20 million.

17. Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman
Amount of federal income taxes Caesars Entertainment would have owed if offshore
tax havens were eliminated? $9 million.
18. R.R. Donnelly & Sons CEO Thomas Quinlan III
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $49 million tax refund.
Source: Top Corporate Dodgers report
Since the above report, Sanders has published other similar lists, one more recently that narrows down it down to:
America's Top Ten Corporate Tax Avoiders
Thank you, Senator Bernie Sanders. Thanks for fighting the fight and walking the talk in the name of the American people. You stand a part in your greatness.
