The anti-tax bandwagon sinks to new depths of depravity
Corning, Inc.'s headquarters in Corning, N.Y. | Stilfehler | Wikimedia Commons
Has the anti-tax crowd lost its mind? Have they totally overplayed their hand? The evidence is growing that the answer is a resounding “YES!”
The latest proof of that occurred in sworn testimony before Congress this week.
It was delivered by Susan Ford, a senior executive at Corning, Inc., which earned almost $3 billion betwen 2008 and 2011.
That’s their headquarters in New York on the left. Nice digs, huh?
With a straight face, she told the House Ways and Means Committee that the United State’s stiff corporate tax rate was putting her company at a competitive disadvantage.
That would be a shame if there was a shred of truth to it.
What suggests it’s a big fat lie is the amount of taxes Corning has paid for those years.
Take a wild guess what that amount is. The answer is below the jump.
.
.
ZERO.
Corning has paid ZERO taxes on almost $3 billion in earnings. Actually that’s not true. They also got a $4 million REFUND. So the truth is that Corning has a NEGATIVE tax rate. It’s -0.2 percent. They’re one of 26 American companies that pay no income taxes.
What is Ford complaining about? Seriously. That her company’s not getting a big enough refund for all the taxes THEY DON’T PAY? That Corning deserves a HIGHER negative tax rate? How much does Corning want the government to pay them for not paying taxes? It’s a fair question. Why are they crying the overtaxed blues?
The RWers have been jawboning for years that if liberals ever got a firm toehold in government, they would just pay themselves all the money it takes in. This suggests the reality is actually the opposite. Besides, history shows that when liberals are in charge, they’re likely to be more fiscally responsible than conservatives.
It’s the conservatives who raid the Treasury (when they’re not stonewalling, I mean) and vote themselves tax breaks and REFUNDS THEY DON’T DESERVE like Corning, Inc. It’s the liberals who balance the budgets, and under whom there is higher economic growth, too.
If the House of Representatives has any cojones at all, they would Susan Ford back as a witness and question her on this stuff. But they don’t, because they’re ruled by Republicans. And more than anything else, they hate inconvenient facts.
To bastardize a line from Elvis Costello: I used to be amused. But now I’m just disgusted.
You should be, too.
July 21, 2012 - 11:00 AM
here goes that left-wing speel again. General Electric which is many
times larger than Corning pays no income tax. that is fine with the liberals because the CEO of General Electric is one of OBUMA’S finance advisors and GE makes huge donations to the DNC. i imagine that you are easy to spot walking on the street because you lean so much to the left.
Facts are facts are facts, and the facts are that since 1961, the economy has performed much better under Democratic Administrations, pretty much in every category:
-With twenty years on each side and since some of the ups and downs of the U.S. business cycle lie beyond the direct control of policymakers, one would expect similar results in the two groups. Not so. Instead, one discovers below a significant advantage when a Democrat occupied the White House in each of the five categories.
% Per Annum Democrat Republican Bush43
GDP Growth 4.1% 2.9% 2.2%
Employment 2.9% 1.7% 0.5%
CPI 4.0% 5.1% 3.0%
DJIA 8.1% 6.5% 0.9%
Dollar +0.8% -3.6% -5.9%
http://currencythoughts.com/2008/08/19/how-the-us-economy-performed-under-democrat-and-republican-presidents/
Hey Dan pay all you want. Send the IRS an extra check every month just leave the test of us out of it please.
This is federal taxes, right? As Dan as repeatedly said about “poor” people, , what about all the other state, local, sales, excise, and other taxes Corning pays? Why just focus on the federal? Oops!
We used to hear the same about GE. Turns out their subsidiary GE Capital lost a ton of money which caused the parent company not to pay federal taxes for several years. Of course the libs forgot to mention that thorny detail.
There’s a reason Corning doesn’t have to pay federal taxes if this accussation is true. If Corning is evading taxes illegally, why isn’t somebody filing charges? But since they are apparently following the law, then time to stop bellyaching.
Frankly, corporations should pay no taxes since they deliver jobs and other taxes to areas anyway. There is a war on capitalism and the businesses that practice it. 0bama told America what he thinks last week in Roanoke. Dan is following suit today.
Not only should corporations be tax exempt, income past a certain point shouls also be tax-free. The idea is to encourage people to become achievers; not punish them. Tax revenue would soar, btw, because of the strivers and go-getters working hard to get to that tax-free level.
To continue the previous point, real estate agents typically do not have to pay brokerage fees for the rest of the year if they get to a certain point. It causes them to work very hard. it obviously helps the brokers overall, or they wouldn’t have this incentive.
Leftwingers continue to miscalculate human nature. You reward behavior you want to increase. You don’t reward people for being lazy dumbasses, because you’ll get more lazy dumbasses.
Dan,
Surely you are not surprised at this? It is the small and medium business people (who cannot afford lobbyists) that get screwed (by both parties).
A flat tax (on all income above poverty level) with no deductions except for charity and home loans would go a long way to solving these problems… but that aint gonna happen.
2
William Bova neglects to mention the lion’s share of his growth chart happened when Republicans took over Congress in 1995. This was the group that cut taxes and reduced spending rates. You recall Bill Clinton had no intention of cutting anything until the GOP Congress made him.
Morons shouldn’t handle stats. They might get hurt.
The point of taxation has become so bastardized that indeed the big money makers can pay little to none and the workers without influence can pay out of proportion. The tax system is but one that is broken.
Until we lay down and let them and their money rule, this will never end. See the suggestions above for proof.
No,colorado max, G.E. paying no taxes is not fine with liberals. I don’t care whether the CEO makes donations to Democrats or not. The fact that a company makes billions/millions and pays no taxes is criminal IMO.
I nominate Susan Ford for the award of Corporate Welfare Queen.
The Democrats haven’t passed a budget in years, literally. To say they balance budgets is laughable. Additionally, to place the state of corporate tax rates and payment history at the feet of the Republicans only is turning a blind eye to the first two years of the Obama presidency when the Democrats had a supermajority in the House and Senate. They didn’t even address this issue. While it may be a problem, it is one created and perpetuated by both parties.
The point of taxation has become so bastardized that indeed the big money makers can pay little to none and the workers without influence can pay out of proportion. The tax system is but one that is broken.
The system is broken because a very few pay almost all federal taxes, while nearly half pay nothing. This is what I mean about this blog being a haven for freaking alternate reality. Folks like Sandi want the overburdened few to pay even more, while the freeloaders to do less, if that’s possible.
#1 Please explain where you got that nutty idea, colorado max. In this case, Corning was mentioned instead of GE because one of Corning’;s spokespeople came out with something stupid.
Are you really so doltish that you didn’t realize this, or are you just throwing out a particularly weak strawman?
“To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”
“The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.”
Thomas Jefferson
Just a question on “a very few pay almost all federal taxes, while nearly half pay nothing.”
In a time such as this when 10% of the population owns 75% of the wealth and the bottom 50% own 1% of the wealth, just how should the tax breakdown look, anyway?
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/19/552821/bottom-half-americans-one-percent-wealt/
Yes Jefferson was a man of many opinions:
“…This little attendrissement, with the solitude of my walk led me into a train of reflections on that unequal division of property which occasions the numberless instances of wretchedness which I had observed in this country and is to be observed all over Europe. The property of this country is absolutely concentered in a very few hands, having revenues of from half a million of guineas a year downwards. These employ the flower of the country as servants, some of them having as many as 200 domestics, not labouring. They employ also a great number of manufacturers, and tradesmen, and lastly the class of labouring husbandmen. But after all these comes the most numerous of all the classes, that is, the poor who cannot find work. I asked myself what could be the reason that so many should be permitted to beg who are willing to work, in a country where there is a very considerable proportion of uncultivated lands? These lands are kept idle mostly for the aske of game. It should seem then that it must be because of the enormous wealth of the proprietors which places them above attention to the increase of their revenues by permitting these lands to be laboured. I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of every kind therefore to all the children, or to all the brothers and sisters, or other relations in equal degree is a politic measure, and a practicable one. Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.”
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s32.html
In a time such as this when 10% of the population owns 75% of the wealth and the bottom 50% own 1% of the wealth, just how should the tax breakdown look, anyway?
The wealthy already pay property taxes twice a year on their possessions. We pay taxes on the dividends on their stocks and capital gains when they sell. We pay separate taxes on our businesses. Just how many ways and how often do you think we should have to pay? I know the answer. You liberals think we should pay 100% of everything.
The “overburdened” do not own multiple homes in multiple states and countries, own jets, vacation multiple times a year, have yachts, live in multi-million dollar penthouses, have elevators for their cars or even retire in their 40′s and contemplate an orphanage in Zimbabwe. Are you serious? The “overburdened” are not overburdened with taxes, that is for damn sure, they just want to avoid that duty as well.
Corporations do not pay taxes. Run them out of the country the bums. They don’t deserve to be in a great country like ours and benefit from all of the wonderful “infrastructure” and “internet resources” our great government has provided. Kick ‘em out! Make them build their polluting, non compliant, worker endangering factories elsewhere. Let them build their corporate offices and administrative facilities in another country! They don’t DESERVE the fantastic, wonderful benefits our gracious government has to offer. LEAVE!! selfish corporations, and take your jobs with you! We don’t need you!!
The socialist, Marxist, progressives will see to it that we get our rice and water!
Suzie:
6.”…real estate agents typically do not have to pay brokerage fees for the rest of the year if they get to a certain point. It causes them to work very hard. it obviously helps the brokers overall, or they wouldn’t have this incentive.”
The “brokerage fees” you’re referring to are commonly called “company dollar” and they are per the agents’ commission schedules. The are two common scenarios: The one you’re taking about is a commission split where the company keeps a percentage, sometimes a sliding percentage, of the gross closing amount to the brokerage until the company has received X dollar from that agent. The other is a “desk fee”, where the agent pays the entire company dollar for the year up front. The broker gives a nice discount on the total amount and in exchange, the agent takes the additional risk of closing enough to make it worthwhile. The market decides what is competitive. I have some of each working with me.
One thing is for sure, you’re right in that it causes them to work hard. There are no brokers getting rich off of their agents, though. We are making slim margins in this competitive economy. Agents and brokers alike, if we don’t close, we don’t eat. I really like the way it works, though, and with only 30% of people renewing their license the first time, it obviously isn’t for everyone.
Here’s a link to an article in the NY Times which points out what Congressional Republicans are up to in their efforts to protect the 1% from tax increases in 2013. They plan to stick it to the lower and middle income earners. Typical!!!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48296014/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/