Michelle Chen at The Nation writes—Today Is Tax Day—Are Corporations Paying Their Fair Share?
As you groan about the size of the check you cut to Uncle Sam today, just imagine the savings the country’s biggest corporate citizens are wracking up during their year-round tax holiday. Corporations collectively owe, both to the US Treasury, and to poorer governments around the world, about $100 billion in unpaid debts they’ve socked away through tax offshoring.
According to Oxfam’s latest brief on tax offshoring, to close the $100 billion gap in the public coffers, “the average American taxpayer would have to shell out an extra $760” in taxes. Thanks to a sophisticated tax arbitrage tactic, “In 2012, US multinationals alone shifted $700 billion from countries where their profits were truly earned to locations with very low or zero tax rates.”
If that $100 billion showed up on the government’s books, we could fund essential healthcare for more than 2 billion people worldwide, “quadruple spending on education in the world’s 47 poorest countries,” or basically finance the annual budgets for federal social security, labor and unemployment, and education program spending in the United States. [...]
According to Oxfam, during 2008 through 2014, while the economy reeled and then hobbled forward, “the 50 largest US companies collectively received $27 in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts for every $1 they paid in federal taxes.” It’s not that they were exactly ungenerous to Washington; they were just savvy in terms of where they deposited their assets. The same companies collectively sank $2.6 billion into lobbying federal officials, and got a return on investment of “nearly $11.2 trillion in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.”
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Is Anyone Watching Iraq?
Between the horror in Virginia, the hideous decision of the Supreme Court, the ongoing outrage over the US attorneys, and half a dozen other scandals underway, it's understandable that Americans are a bit distracted today. It may not be making the top of today's news, but Baghdad is exploding.
Suspected Sunni insurgents penetrated the Baghdad security net Wednesday, hitting Shiite targets with four bomb attacks that killed 183 people — the bloodiest day since the U.S. troop increase began nine weeks ago.... Nationwide the number of people killed or found dead was 233, which was second only to a total of 281 killed or found dead on Nov. 23, 2006. Those figures are according to AP record-keeping, which began in May 2005. |
For the last few weeks, the Bush administration has twisted every possible statistic to try and extract some shadow of "progress," but today's violence should put to rest any theory that the massive escalation of US forces is the solution.
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On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin takes a last look at NY polling & looks ahead to CT. Trump destroys his own myth, failing time and again to close the deal on delegates. Armando wonders how the GOP disposes of him; ponders US v. TX. From WI: a voter ID compliance nightmare.
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