Want to Cut the Deficit? Restore Fair Taxes on
Corporations and the Wealthy

By Deborah Burger, RN
CommonDreams.org
March 25, 2011

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/25-13

If the deficit hawks in Congress are serious about
righting our economic ship and reducing deficits in the
federal budget and many state capitols, it would we
worth listening to the voices rising from the streets
suggesting a very different solution than more cuts in
safety net programs, education, pensions, and worker's
rights.

This is not a budget fight, it's a fight for the future
of an America in which everyone should be able to
retire in dignity, not worry about whether they can go
to the doctor when they get sick, or whether there will
still be schools for their kids.

How will we pay for it? By increasing the revenues from
those who can most afford it, not by punishing those
who have the least. By requiring corporations and the
wealthiest individuals to pay their fair share, and
stop blaming working people for an economic crisis
created by Wall Street and exploited by their
politician acolytes.

We've all heard the arguments. Pass more corporate tax
breaks because that's what makes the economy grow.
Except it doesn't.

Corporate profits per employee are at record levels. At
$1.6 trillion, third quarter 2009 corporate profits
were the highest ever recorded. Yet official
unemployment still hovers near 9 percent, and the real
jobless number is probably double that. Whatever big
corporations are doing with their record profits, they
are not hiring more workers.

Or the argument that our 35 percent corporate tax rate
is one of the highest in the world. Except few if any
major corporations pay anywhere near that amount. Half
of foreign companies and about 42 percent of U.S.
companies paid no U.S. income taxes for two or more
years from 1998 to 2005, according to a recent
Government Accounting Office study.

How do they accomplish this? Pages of corporate tax
loopholes that render the supposed tax rate
meaningless, loopholes not available to the average
working family.

Who are some of those tax scofflaws? Bank of America
and Citigroup, two of the financial institutions that,
unlike workers did actually create the financial
meltdown, paid no taxes in 2009. Boeing, just awarded a
new $35 billion contract by the federal government to
build airplanes, also paid no taxes between 2008 and
2010 despite recording $10 billion in profits those
year, reports Citizens for Tax Justice.

Where's the shared sacrifice from these corporate
giants? Not from General Electric which, as the New
York Times reported March 24, made $14.2 billion in
profits in 2010, but paid no U.S. taxes, and was
rewarded with the appointment of their top executive to
head President Obama's Council on Jobs and
Competitiveness. Apparently paying no taxes is a model
for how to be competitive.

Then there's the wealthiest Americans who won a two
year extension on tax breaks in December and also
profited from the near elimination of estate taxes, at
a time when the richest 5 percent of Americans control
23 percent of total income, compared to just 12 percent
for the 40 percent at the bottom.

According to Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and
Capgemini Consulting, there were about 3 million high
net worth individuals and ultra high net wealth
individuals in the US in 2009, those with investable
assets, excluding primary residences and consumables,
of from $1 million to $30 million.

Calculations by the Institute for Health and Socio-
Economic Policy, research arm of National Nurses
United, shows that a one-time wealth surcharge of 14%
on those assets would more than pay for the $1.6
trillion budget deficit projection for 2011. Or, it
would support about 33.8 million households at the
national real median income level for 2008, pay for a
year's worth of AIDS medication for about 142 million
patients, or create 34 million jobs at $50,000 per
year.

In other words, we could more than balance our federal
and state budgets without cutting Social Security or
slashing pensions for public servants or depriving
students of access to a decent education or far too
many Americans of access to healthcare.

Turn off the Fox News echo chamber and you can hear the
sounds of those calling for economic justice and a more
fair tax system every day in the streets of Madison,
Columbus, Indianapolis, and other cities across
America. They have opened a door that will not be
closed, and their voices are getting louder.
__________________

Deborah Burger is a registered nurse and a co-president
of National Nurses United

___________________________________________

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