Warren Buffett Calls Republicans’ Bluff on Taxes
Billionaire Warren Buffett is a thorn in the side of Republicans. This pillar of the capitalist community and CEO of the corporate conglomerate Berkshire Hathway, continues to press Congress to raise taxes wealthy people like him. When congressional Republicans answered him by proposing a voluntary check-off box on tax-filing forms for people who want to pay more taxes, Buffet threw down a gauntlet. He’d happily match the voluntary tax contributions made by GOP lawmakers, he said — and he’d even triple-match those made by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Speaking with Time magazine’s Rana Foroohar, Buffett said (with a chuckle, according to the reporter):
It restores my faith in human nature to think that there are people who have been around Washington all this time and are not yet so cynical as to think that [the deficit] can’t be solved by voluntary contributions.
Buffet made waves in August when, in a New York Times op-ed piece, he repeated Read the rest of this entry »
Top Economists Call for Higher Taxes on Mega-Rich
A new study by a team of top economists finds that if the tax rate for the highest-income Americans was pegged at—drum roll please—83 percent—it wouldn’t impact anyone but the “mega-rich.”
When Ronald Reagan and his Republican successors began three decades of hacking away at the taxes the rich paid—once as high as 80 percent—they claimed it would spur unfettered, long-term uninterrupted economic growth for all. Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher followed the same game plan. Well, say the authors:
Countries that made large cuts in top tax rates such as the United Kingdom or the United States have not grown significantly faster than countries that did not, such as Germany or Denmark.
Along with the tax cuts, the decades-long soaring level of executive pay, stock Read the rest of this entry »
Corporate Tax-Dodgers Imperil State Budgets
Among the huge and profitable corporations listed in the Fortune 500, many corporate giants managed to pay no state corporate income tax for at least one year between 2008 and 2010. A new report, “Corporate Tax Dodging in the Fifty States, 2008-2010,” from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), found that tax avoidance costs states some $42 billion in revenues over the course of the past three years, even as states struggle to meet their basic obligations to citizens.
The report is yet another showing how many massively profitable corporations pay little to no taxes. (ITEP’s and CTJ examined the top corporate tax-dodgers on the federal rolls, which we covered here.)
Looking at the tax records of 265 Fortune 500 corporations, the watchdog groups found 68 companies that managed to score, in the arena of state corporate income tax, at least one tax-free year, as well as another 20 whose tax bill averaged zero or less for the entire three-year period covered by the report. Read the rest of this entry »
Taxing the Rich Does Create Jobs, Says Venture Capitalist
Nick Hanauer is another multimillionaire who says its time to tax the rich. The venture capitalist, who has launched more than 20 companies and is an original investor in Amazon.com, says Republicans are completely wrong when they claim that raising taxes on the rich—the so-called job creators—would kill job growth because “Rich people like me don’t create jobs, middle-class consumers do.”
So let’s give a break to the true job creators. Let’s tax the rich like we once did and use that money to spur growth by putting purchasing power back in the hands of the middle class. And let’s remember that capitalists without customers are out of business.
Hanauer also points out that the 99 percent have not gotten a fair shake.
If the average American family still got the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would have an astounding $13,000 more in their pockets a year. It’s worth pausing to consider what our economy would be like today if middle-class consumers had that additional income to spend.
Click here to read his full column at Bloomberg.
Responsible Investors Group Backs Occupy Wall Street Goals
Some of those in the 1 percent are stepping forward to express their support for the 99 percent, agreeing with Occupy Wall Street protesters that the nation’s financial system is seriously harming our economy. The latest to indicate their support for the 99 percent are the financially savvy members of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, who are calling for greater corporate transparency, restraint of excessive payouts to executives and support for the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The consumer bureau does not yet have a director because Senate Republicans have blocked a vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to lead the agency.
Lisa Woll, CEO of US SIF (as the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment is also known) expressed solidarity with the Occupy protesters:
The Occupy movement occurring across the country, and indeed, around the world, speaks to many of the issues and concerns raised by sustainable and responsible investors over the past several decades—and particularly since the unfolding of the recent financial crisis.
Woll also backed the recent Occupy-allied “move your money” campaign, Read the rest of this entry »
Verizon Paid a -2.9% Tax Rate from 2008-2010
This is a cross-post by Kenneth Quinnell from Crooks & Liars.
Citizens for Tax Justice released a report Tuesday that shows anti-union telecom company Verizon not only paid no taxes in the past three years, the company received nearly $1 billion in rebates from the government.
Verizon enjoyed some $14 billion in federal and state corporate income tax subsidies in the 2008-2010 period even though it earned $33.4 billion in pre-tax U.S. income during that time.
At the federal level, Verizon should have paid about $11.4 billion at the statutory rate of 35 percent during the three-year period. Instead, it got $951 million in rebates, putting its federal tax subsidies at $12.3 billion. Its effective federal tax rate was -2.9 percent.
Verizon also has managed to avoid most state-level taxes as well, while pursuing a strong anti-worker set of policies that we have reported on previously. The company has demanded $1 billion in benefit concessions from workers despite paying no taxes and raking in profits. Follow the Unity@Verizon campaign by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) here.
Verizon and 29 Other Big Corps Paid No Taxes Since 2007
While Verizon workers toil without a contract, a report issued jointly today by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that it’s not just its workers the company is short-changing; it’s all of the American people. For the last three years, Verizon has paid less than zero taxes. That’s right—through the use of corporate loopholes, Verizon has actually “made” money through its tax filings, according to the report, “Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers.”
One area where Verizon didn’t mind paying out? CEO compensation—to the tune of $18.1 million last year.
And Verizon is hardly alone: 29 other corporations listed on the Fortune 500, according to the report, paid either no taxes, or, like Verizon, enjoy a negative tax balance on their filings for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Other household names on that ignominious list include Honeywell International, DuPont, Boeing, Mattel, Duke Energy and Wells Fargo (which also benefited from the bank bailout). Read the rest of this entry »
The Republican Jobs Plan: Jobs? What Jobs?
To paraphrase that classic Wendy’s hamburger ad, when it comes to the Republicans’ so-called jobs plan, “Where’s the Jobs?
Senate Republicans successfully filibustered President Obama’s American Jobs Act and blocked a vote on a break-out provision that would enable some 400,000 teachers, firefighters and other first responders to get or keep a job. Republicans vow to do the same on an upcoming infrastructure jobs bill and other pieces of American Jobs Act when they come up for votes. Meanwhile, House Republicans have even refused to put the bill to a vote.
Why are they fighting so hard against creating jobs? Because they claim they have a better jobs plan. Oh yeah? Since when is a plan that’s heart and soul is tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, the rollback of essential federal regulations—including Wall Street reform—and the repeal of health care reform a jobs bill?
Take a look at some of these comparisons of the American Jobs Act and the Republican jobs bill.
- The American Jobs Act would create 1.9 million jobs, according to Moody’s Analytics. Moody’s says that the Republican jobs plan won’t “address [the cause of the current weakness] in the short term….In fact, they could be harmful in the short term.” Read the rest of this entry »
Cantor Cancels Speech as Occupy Philly Plans Protest
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) supposedly wants to talk about the nation’s inequality—but not to just anyone. Cantor, at the last minute, canceled an appearance this afternoon at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was slated to speak. Curiously enough, Occupy Philadelphia had organized a march from City Hall to the campus to protest Cantor’s speech. But Cantor’s not giving a reason for the cancellation.
Earlier this week, we noted that Cantor had shifted his rhetoric to seemingly take a softer line on the Occupy Wall Street movement. But despite changing his tactics from calling protesters “mobs” to suddenly going on the circuit to discuss inequality, Cantor’s “solution” is the same old rhetoric backed by the 1 percent: Don’t create jobs. Cut taxes on the rich.
Occupy Philadelphia and the rest of us 99 percenters around the country aren’t fooled.
Poll: Public Supports Taxing the Richest
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) blusters about not passing the American Jobs Act because he and other Republicans don’t want to raise taxes. But the Jobs Act would only raise taxes on the very richest of the rich—and that’s what he and other corporate puppets don’t want.
But the American people do. More than two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say the extremely wealthiest should pay more in taxes to bring down the budget deficit, and even larger numbers think Medicare and Social Security benefits should be left alone, according to a poll released today.
The Bloomberg-Washington Post national poll—another in a line of polls showing U.S. public support for raising taxes on the rich—shows that 53 percent of self-identified Republicans said they would support such a measure to bring down the deficit.
But the Boehners in Congress aren’t listening. Which is why tens of thousands of people have gathered at Occupy Wall Street events across the nation, and why thousands of people are taking part in the union movement’sAmerica Wants to Work week of action now under way.
