We all know that money talks and bullshit walks. Nowhere is that more true than in our current political machine.
The 2012 presidential election cost by itself about two and a half BILLION dollars. The entire 2012 election cycle including presidential and senatorial/congressional elections ran over six billion. Imagine, a billion dollars just to sit in the most powerful chair on the planet. Well, it was until Obama started leading from behind and pissing away our place as global leader. A billion dollars to sit in the chair of the fifth or sixth most powerful position on the planet.
Is it any wonder that only the most craven and egocentric among us bother to run for office? I could not imagine announcing my candidacy only to have to grovel to untold thousands of persons known and unknown asking them to fund the mere chance of me taking an elected office. This is how political corruption is born. People rarely just give you money. They want something in return. That something, in politics, is usually access. Access leads to grease or steerage, or favoritism. The person donating wants something tangible in return and they will ask for it when they need it.
And the money squirts to both sides of the aisle. Businesses will pay a little now for a greater payoff later. Think I’m kidding? Think I do not know what I’m talking about? Let’s look at a few examples. (You can see the rest of them by going to the link included.)
Verizon Communications
Profits: $19.8 billion Effective tax rate: -3.8%
Top recipients, 2011-2012
President Barack Obama: $51,493 Nothing needs to be said.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.): $24,450 He is on the committee for Taxation and IRS Oversight. Convenient.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): $23,700 Senate Minority Leader. On the Senate Committee for Appropriations.
Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio): $22,500 Speaker of the House.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.): $15,000
General Electric
Profits: $19.6 billion Effective tax rate: -18.9%
Top recipients, 2011-2012
Mitt Romney: $53,750 Think business leader Romney would have reeled GE in? Think again.
President Barack Obama (D): $30,493. Again, nothing to be said.
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.): $23,900. Pompous ass. Left Mass., and now running again in NH.
Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.): $21,860 Been in Congress for 30 years—knows who to talk to and who to pay off.
Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): $19,750 Fifth largest donor for someone on the Committee for Joint Economic Development. Remember GE’s moving jobs overseas?
Boeing
Profits: $14.8 billion Effective tax rate: -5.5%
Top recipients, 2011-2012
Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.): $31,750 20-year Congressman. Committee on Armed Forces. Boeing is a big military contractor.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.): $25,000 15-year Congressman. Committee on Armed Forces. 3 major Boeing facilities in Washington state
Former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.): $23,500 Who wants back in to politics? Now you know why.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.): $23,125 Committee of Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas): $20,986 Nobody is innocent.
Verizon took issues stating that they pay a lot in taxes and investments. The last word is key—investments. They get tax breaks on their investments. Why not upgrade your system from 3G to 4G if the government is going to subsidize it?
Another article details 26 large companies that pay no taxes. They include: (picture did not import in. Go to the third link to see it.)
PICTURE SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE.
Notice that many of them—SIXTEEN of them are energy companies. Pepco is an energy distribution company, as is NiSource. Apache is a natural gas and oil exploration company. Look at your gas & electric or utilities bill. I personally pay almost $3000 a year to Xcel and IREA combined. Aurora has about 300,000 residents. If we use a modest half figure (150,000) as customers it comes to $439 million annually between these two companies. And they need a tax break sufficient to make their effective tax rate go into negative numbers?
My tax rate last year was about 11%. If I incorporate myself as an energy firm and start giving select politicians money, can I stop paying taxes? Or should I go into politics?
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/08/2012-election-will-be-costliest-yet.html
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/04/top-tax-dodging-companies-politicians
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/corporation-tax-rate_n_4855763.html