I posted this article to show how much things are stacked against the average person in this country and how corporations are favored. But since corporations buy our elected representatives with campaign contributions, gifts, promises of lucrative employment after they leave their government jobs, and other perks it is easy to understand how this state of affairs came about.

When I worked at a large corporation, the people who worked as Buyers in the Purchasing department had strict guidelines they had to follow.They weren't allowed to accept gifts from vendors nor even to give the impression that they were receiving any kind of perks. This was due to laws that ALL buyers in ALL companies had to follow.

Why aren't our elected representatives bound by any similar laws? They need to be. Until they are the individual will take a back seat to the corporations.

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Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."

Yet, everyone whines about the personal income taxes. Gee, ya think they might come down if these corps ponied up?

The way I figure it, everyone has a moral obligation to support their country and contribute their share. Corporations most of all, who wouldn't acheive the astronomical profits without the framework provided and maintained the government and our system. Freeloaders.

There are those that would say that many companies would leave the US if forced to pay their taxes. That's probably true. I think their really should be some laws governing that, against outright mercenaryism. To be an "American" company with all the benefits that entails, and to only have one tiny corner office, with 99% of the company's assets overseas is ridiculous, to me. Whatever. I'm no economist.

Just goes against my sense of fair play.

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Unfortunately, the Founders did not address the possibility of this nation becoming populated with obnoxious twits.

Ah, yes, don't you just love the way the article is spun?! What is being ignored here is all the tax deductions corporations are allowed to take - DEDUCTIONS PASSED BY DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS ALIKE! So, what is really going on here is that the result of taking LEGAL DEDUCTIONS is that these corporations - most of which are small businesses but those damned leftist idiots don't want to recognize that fact - effectively paid no taxes. It's almost like individual taxpayers (you and me) getting a tax refund.

The article is a prime example of why there needs to be a flat tax and a complete elimination of all deductions.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Aside from your constant, tiresome "damned leftist" rhetoric, I agree.

We need to simplify and close all these loopholes and convoluted escape clauses. It's taken a long, concerted effort by BOTH parties (damned leftists AND damned rightists) working together to wreck the whole point of fair taxation for the sake of political expediency.

I think some sort of legislation addressing outsourcing is in order, too. Maybe not outright protectionism, but the corporations have had it scot-free for far too long. There is a reasonable limit to unfettered capitalism. If corporations squeal that their taxes (or intelligent environmental constraints, etc.) eats into their profits, too bad, so sad.

It always just kills me when I see some corporation claiming it "lost" money. Bull. It merely failed to make as much as it wanted to. Cry me a river. Can't "lose" what you never had! And, if simply paying your fair taxes causes you to actually go bankrupt......maybe you need to re-think how razor-thin your profit margin is?

What did ExxonMobil make last quaarter? Yeah. Pony up, sparky....

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Unfortunately, the Founders did not address the possibility of this nation becoming populated with obnoxious twits.

I have been saying that for quite some time. Not the corporations stuff, but the tax stuff.

Our tax system is horrible and corrupt. We have all these exemptions and loopholes. The tax code is so long that no one in their right mind would read it. The great majority of people do not file their taxes correctly because of the absurd complexity. Some tweaking in the code is just not going to do it.

We need to replace our code. We need a clean slate with legal workings in to to prevent new exemptions. I know I support fairtax, but I would support other systems if it came to it. Some change in the right direction is better than none.

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May your paradise always be green, you liberties always be full, and may the ignorance of you enemies not drive you to be pro-nuke.

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself
into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill