Washington is full of tax wimps. Politicians are beholding for their cushion of privilege to corporations who pay their tabs while their overlords complain constantly about being taxed too much. Here is a tax fact, not from the obviously unreliable US PERSON, but the very conservative non-profit Citizens for Tax Justice. Officially, and in no other way related to reality, corporations pay a marginal tax rate of 35% which is at the high end compared to other developed countries. But, and this is a big but, hardly no corporation worth its tax lawyers' fees pays that much. In fact twelve of the biggest corporations[1] in America payed an effective rate of just 1.5% on $171 billion in profits during the period 2008-2010. All but two of these companies paid no tax for at least one year during the period, and eight reported net tax benefits (federal income taxes were negative) over the period. The highest effective tax rate paid was 14.2% by Exxon-Mobil. As an industry oil companies enjoy tremendous tax breaks intended to stimulate exploration. Even their own oil patch buddy the Charlatan said that with oil over $55 a barrel, no tax incentives to drill were necessary. Current prices are almost double that threshold. If Washington were not run by craven politicians constantly on the make for contributions, eliminating the federal deficit would be a no-brainer. Cut out the tax giveaways[2] for the rich and corporate and stop spending money on foolish, endless wars that accomplish very little except to keep arms manufacturers in business (Was it necessary to wage war in Afghanistan for ten years to kill one man?). But no, the supposed fearless killer of Osama offers to sacrifice Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to the budget ax. The deficit reduction theatre going on right now in Washington is a shameful race to the trough of campaign finance.
[1]American Electric Power, Boeing, Dupot, Exxon-Mobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell International, IBM, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Wells Fargo and Yahoo.
[2] Some of the more ridiculous subsidies for the rich defended by Repugnants: accelerated depreciation for thoroughbred horse breeders; accelerated depreciation for corporate jets; mortgage interest deductions for vacation homes and yachts, and offshore tax havens.