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The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.
Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO’s estimate.
More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts.
The GAO said it analyzed data from the Internal Revenue Service, examining samples of corporate returns for the years 1998 through 2005. For 2005, for example, it reviewed 110,003 tax returns from among more than 1.2 million corporations doing business in the U.S.
I can already hear the wingnuts: But if you tax the corporations, they’ll just pass the costs on to the little guy! Well, hell, at least the taxes will get paid and we won’t have a deficit! Besides if corporations raise the cost of their goods and services too much, I won’t buy from them and they’ll lose money.
Whoops - I missed recording the first segment of the show. But otherwise you get to hear my opinions on John Edwards, offshore oil drilling, and cops who lie and murder dogs while breaking into people’s homes.
John McCain’s latest attack ad paints Obama, again, as the greatest celebrity in the world. It’s a weird line of attack to constantly remind people how popular your opponent is, but what’s weirder is how it paints the picture of Obama as a wealthy elitist who can’t understand how tough times are on the average folks.
Most semi-interested political watchers know that John McCain’s doing all right financially, what with the seven or eight houses and the beer executive wife with the private jet. McCain’s profile says his net worth is between $27-$45 million. Obama’s listed at between $450 thousand-$1.1 million. Is this line of attack fooling anyone?
Maybe. “Low-info” voters might think senators are rich and not go beyond that. Saying “McCain’s richer than Obama” might not have an effect. Maybe people assume when you’re on every magazine cover, you’re rich.
But what about “McCain’s richer than Paris Hilton?”
Estimates of Paris Hilton’s individual wealth are difficult to verify, until she really does run for president. Her dad’s worth $300 million, her granddad $2.3 billion. But granddad donated 97% of his wealth to charity and dad promised to do the same. Paris may have only gotten $20 million. Some random fan pages I found said she might be worth $50 million on her own, with her endorsements and fragrances and whatever else it is she sells.
Sounds good, if you’re talking about the oil leases that Big Oil already have, but aren’t exploring. Like I said today, this is all about acquiring assets, trading commodities for speculators, the same Enron-style energy market manipulation we’ve seen before in California but only on a global scale.
My interview with Barney Frank on HR5843, the bill to end federal penalties for personal possession of marijuana by adults, a look at the anthrax investigation and suicide of Bruce Ivins, McCain’s silly and dangerous anti-Obama ads (you can’t call them campaign ads - nothing about McCain’s campaign in them), and ExxonMobil’s world-record profits.
The story of the Bruce E. Ivins, the Ft. Detrick bio-weapons researcher suspected in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five, does not add up. We’re being told he committed suicide by overdosing on Tylenol with codeine.
The anthrax attacks were the cement that bonded America to the War on Islamic Terror in Iraq theme being pushed by the Cheneyburton maladministration long before 9/11. Remember? Powdered weaponized anthrax sent to two Democratic senators and a network news anchor (and the Enquirer, to help scare the “low-info” voters), the Capitol shut down and all of Congress terrorized, John W. McCain positing that anthrax came from Iraq, ABC News quoting “four well-placed sources” that tests showed the anthrax contained bentonite, a signature of Saddam’s arsenal, when no such tests were ever conducted, and after they were, found no bentonite.
The Washington Post reports that Ivins didn’t even have access to this powdered form of anthrax. How did he get ahold of it? How was he having those containment accidents without anyone at one of our most secure facilities speaking up or noticing? Who were ABC News’s four “well-placed sources”? What did John McCain know?
Do you wonder if in the afterlife, Bruce Ivins and Lee Oswald are comparing notes?
These latest items make the suicide story even harder to believe:
