Corporate Greed

A comprehensive new study that profiles 280 of America’s most profitable companies finds that 78 of them paid no federal income tax in at least one of the last three years. Thirty companies enjoyed a negative income tax rate over the three year period, despite combined pre-tax profits of $160 billion. These are among the findings in “Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010,” released today by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

“These 280 corporations received a total of nearly $223 billion in tax subsidies,” said Robert McIntyre, Director at Citizens for Tax Justice and the report’s lead author. “This is wasted money that could have gone to protect Medicare, create jobs and cut the deficit.” 

“Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010” is the tenth comprehensive publication on corporate taxes from Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The two groups released their first major study on the federal income taxes that large, profitable American corporations pay on their U.S. pretax profits in 1984. 

Business Insider: CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...
So, what are the protesters so upset about, really? Do they have legitimate gripes? To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.

ThinkProgress: CEO Bonuses Rose By Nearly 20% In 2010, While Average Worker Saw Income Stagnate
As most American families continue to struggle with high unemployment and stagnant wages, CEOs at the country’s 350 biggest companies saw their pay jump 11% last year to a median of $9.3 million, according to a study conducted for the Wall Street Journal.

EPI: Taxes on the wealthy have gone down dramatically
With Tax Day fast approaching and deficit reduction all the rage, one fact deserves significant attention: the wealthy are enjoying some of the lowest taxes in generations. The Figure shows the average tax rate in 1979, 1992, and 2007, as well as the tax rate for the top 1% of households, and the top 400 households (who have an average annual income of nearly $350 million). Since 1979, the country’s overall average tax rate—the share of income paid in taxes—has fallen slightly, but for those at the top of the earnings ladder this share has fallen dramatically.

Roy Blunt, who declared during his U.S. Senate campaign that "there isn’t any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth,” has cosponsored legislation to completely eliminate the Environment Protection Agency.

In unrelated news, Roy Blunt does whatever polluting corporations ask him to do.

The AFL-CIO unveiled a new "Executive Paywatch" website today detailing executive salaries in Missouri and other states. In contains some pretty fascinating -- and sickening -- details on how CEOs at S&P 500 companies are compensated.  Check it out here.

The database and website part of a larger campaign to strengthen Wall Street reform, close corporate tax loopholes and ensure that poor and middle class Americans are no longer required to pay for the greed of corporate CEOs. You can read the AFL-CIO's full press release can be read below the jump.

A broad coalition of progressive organizations staged rallies around the country yesterday to protest the manifestly unfair tax system that allows some corporations to escape their tax responsibilities entirely.  Events similar to ones in Missouri took place all over the country targeting “The Deadbeat Dozen”—GE, Bank of America, Google, BP, Amazon, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Boeing, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Chase—wealthy corporations that are doing everything in their power to avoid paying taxes in America.

KTVI had a good story on the St. Louis action last night.

Mike Carey, president of the American Council for Affordable and Reliable Energy, was on KMOX's Hancock & Kelleyshow last week to talk about new billboards his organization is financing in the St. Louis area.  The American Council for Affordable and Reliable Energy is a Washington, D.C.-based group financed by coal companies created to protect companies' ability to pollute at their current unsustainable levels.

In the interview, Carey was unable to provide the name of a single funder or supporter unconnected to the coal industry, and struggled to explain why his organization was not running similar ads in any other areas of the country. And just in case you thought the ads weren't political in nature, Carey admitted on air that his organization has only tried to purchase ads in one other Congressional district in the country: Arkansas's Second.  But when Democratic Congressman Vic Snyder announced that his retirement in January, Carey and ACARE lost interest.

Carey was last seen in St. Louis at the November 2009 "Tea Party" as a keynote speaker, along with the recently-arrested James O’Keefe.  The St. Louis Tea Party wrote at the time that Carey created his organization last year "when he saw that misinformation and lies were beginning to shape the political landscape on coal and global warming." Before serving as president of the ACARE, Carey was president of the Ohio Coal Association.

Rep. Mary Still (D-Columbia) is hosting a "district hearing" at the Columbia Public Library tonight for public and expert input on the abuses of payday loan companies.  Still sponsored legislation this year to restrict interest rates on payday loans, but Speaker Ron Richard refused to assign the bill to a committee until the last day of the session, effectively killing the bill before it could even be considered.

Also speaking tonight will be Rep. John Burnett (D-Kansas City), UMKC economics and law professor Bill Black and representatives from the AARP and Better Business Bureau.

In preparation for the event, organizers distributed the following facts about payday loans in the Show-Me State:

• The latest Missouri Division of Finance report documents that payday lenders in Missouri charge an average interest rate of 430.68%.
• Missouri's law allows interest rates of up to 1,980%.

Responding to Roy Blunt's recent grandstanding about wall street firms receiving early H1N1 vaccine shipments, the Post-Dispatch today welcomes Blunt's newfound interest in the special treatment received by the folks on Wall Street.

Whatever the reason, we welcome Mr. Blunt to the populist outrage front. Mr. Blunt was in Congress throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s when, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, the banks got everything they asked for, subsequently wrecking the economy. Mr. Blunt has been a reliable pro-banking industry vote, from repealing the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 to refusing to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages in 2009.

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Congressmen Todd Akin and Blaine Luetkemeyer were two of just 92 Representatives to vote against freezing interest rates and fees for nine months and immediately imposing strict new credit-card rules. The WSJ:

The U.S. House, in a slap at the credit-card industry, on Wednesday voted to freeze interest rates and fees for nine months and to immediately impose strict new credit-card rules currently set to take effect in February or later.

The 331-92 vote comes after lawmakers have been flooded with complaints from consumers furious that issuers raised interest rates, increased minimum payments and lowered credit limits. Dozens of Republicans joined Democrats to approve the measure.