This is why I believe little will change in DC

[funeralcrasher]

By no fault of the Prez elect, this shit is just too hard to stop.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress' investigative watchdog, has found that "a majority of America's largest publicly traded companies and the U.S. government's largest federal contractors use multiple subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to conduct business and avoid paying U.S. taxes," writes Carol D. Leonnig for The Washington Post.

The culprits include some corporate giants who are receiving countless millions in bailout money

Full story here: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Offshore_tax_havens_of_US_corporate_0116.html

I'm sure the conservatives and libertarians and fair taxers in the crowd will say there is absolutely nothing wrong with this situation, other than the companies being taxed at all.

Fuckin' joke.

Comments

[aquaknot.livejournal.com]

People in general will choose what they think is their best available option. Corporations are run by people.

After nearly 20 years studying government and laws, and over 10 years as a lobbyist, one of my cardinal commandments of good lawmaking is "Do not make rules you cannot enforce."

If corporations can en masse avoid taxation then it is either a tax law problem or an enforcement problem. The corporations? They are behaving exactly as they should be expected to act. Of course this kinda highlights that they are soulless and unpatriotic, but it is what it is.

[pkbarbiedoll.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't be surprised that the current administration (and congress) failed to foresee what would happen to this money with zero oversight and accountability. They went on task with the auto makers, but that was only $15b.

By then the recipients of TARP, now including American Express, Citi and others, had laughed all the way to the.. well. you know.

We like to joke that politicians are stupid sometimes, but they aren't. Most if not all are well educated, intelligent and are very well aware of the struggles Americans are going through right now. And in spite of all that, they gave $350 billion to the very people who were at the very least. responsible for the mess - no strings attached. What did they *think* would happen? Further, TARP was provided with the understanding that the credit markets would loosen. That hasn't happened. People losing their jobs and homes have seen absolutely no evidence of the TARP funds trickling down.

Wait and see. We'll turn around and elect these shmucks back into office in two years.

[aquaknot.livejournal.com]

Preachin' to the choir. It's Congress and the bureaucrats who are ultimately responsible for vainly overextending their tax reach, and for being tricked into putting our dollars in the hands of the people who lost it in the first place.

I used to think that those of us who saw this mess coming, who saved and were frugal were the smart ones. Now I'm seeing that it's Congressional favor that we should have been investing in.