More Inequality

[ET]

[Sandy]

Of course, loading down the middle class with the tax burden cuts a lot of businesses out of their most lucrative market, since consumers cannot buy what is produced. It is no coincidence that the last two deep recessions we've experienced came on the heels of the speculation on oil futures that shot the price of gasoline up at rates that boggle the mind, and sucked dollars out of the pockets of the people who spend them. And both times, with Bushes in the White House and their wooden-headed economic policy, the general result was an overall decline in personal income.

You'd have to look under a lot of rocks to find US corporations which actually pay the established corporate tax rate. In fact, if you look at Senator Sanders's list, many of them are also receiving government subsidies. It is probably next to impossible for the average citizen to even find out information about the exact dollar amount big business skips out on. Newsweek has a nice article this week about the layering of laws and policies, most of them antiquated and outdated, which interfere with economic progress in this country. If you really wanted to get at the bottom of the issue, and find out how few dollars our corporate sector actually contributes in taxes, you'll probably have to know a lobbyist personally, because most of the rest of that information is buried in a tangle. Politicians don't want you to know.

The $38 billion in cuts that the GOP has been shrieking about, threatening to shut down the government, would easily be made up simply by stopping subsidies to the ten corporations at the top of Senator Sanders' list. Actually, I think that is somewhere in the $50 billion category. That's just ten corporations, getting away with not only not paying taxes, but with taking your tax money. I suspect that if the corporate tax rate were enforced (see Mike Huckabee), not only would the government's budget deficit disappear, but the national debt could be paid off in a few years. As for the old chestnut of "they'll move overseas," not if they want to have a market here, they won't. Our government has the authority to regulate imports. Corporations can move overseas, but they can also pay tarrifs which equalize the price of their goods to consumers here. One way or the other, they'll pay taxes.

Remember Bill Clinton? There are a lot of European and Asian auto makers with plants in this country, providing a lot of jobs, because that was the condition that was laid down for them to keep doing business here.