Here is what I posted to Matts site. Lets use some real numbers and not pizza analogys. In October 2010, a group of 80 CEOs went before Congress stating the need to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, while lowering tax rates for millionaires, billionaires, and the largest corporations in America. These are some of the same CEOs who head corporations that received a total taxpayer bailout of more than $2.5 trillion from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department and nearly caused the economy to collapse. They avoided at least $34.5 billion in taxes by setting up more than 600 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other offshore tax havens since 2008; in 2010, Bank of America operated 371 subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens, more than any other financial institution in the United States. 204 of these subsidiaries are incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which has a corporate tax rate of 0%. A dozen of these companies paid no corporate income taxes in at least one year since 2008, while receiving more than $6.4 billion in tax refunds from the IRS, after making billions in profits. During the financial crisis, JP Morgan Chase received a total of more than $391 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $25 billion bailout from the Treasury Department, while Jamie Dimon served as a director of the New York Federal Reserve. Likewise the Federal Reserve provided GE with $16 billion in financial assistance. More recently as Matt Taibbi points out in his Rolling Stone article “The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chases Worst Nightmare” – despite the enormous fine no one from JP Morgan Chase has been convicted of any wrong-doing. Here we have some of the same people who “contributed” significantly to the explosive deficit. Milton Friedman the father of neo-liberal economics states “… the private sector is a check on the powers of the government sector.” But who is the check on the private sector? Have they paid their fare share? Lets not stop here. From the Congressional Budget Office, “Changes in CBO’s Baseline Projections Since January 2001”, dated June 7, 2012, states the following: “In January 2001, CBO’s baseline projections showed a cumulative surplus of $5.6 trillion for the 2002–2011 periods. The actual results have differed from those projections because of subsequent policy changes, economic developments that differed from CBO’s forecast, and other factors. As a result, the federal government ran deficits from 2002 through 2011. The cumulative deficit over the 10-year period amounted to $6.1 trillion—a swing of $11.7 trillion from the January 2001 projections.” The data provided indicates the current national debt is a combination of tax cuts, bailouts, discretionary spending and interest between 2001 and 2011, and less than expected growth. In January 2001, President George H. Bush inherited a $5.6 trillion surplus. Revenues during the 10 year period were decreased by $6.1 trillion through tax cuts of $2.8 trillion (Bush and Obama) and $3.1 trillion as a result of the economic downturn. Outlays during the 10 year period were increased by $5.6 trillion which included discretionary spending ($2.9 trillion), bailouts, tax break costs, Medicare prescriptions ($1.4 trillion) and interest ($1.3 trillion). Taking the $6.1 trillion revenue decrease and $5.6 trillion outlay increase, the swing is $11.7 trillion.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 22:47:41 +0000
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