Chicago Guy wrote:
<quoted text>
Do you know that the majority of illegals pay taxes? That they contribute to Social Security and Medicare, but never collect it?
Do you know many economists believe they actually ADD to government revenues, by not taking...
According to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (
itepnet.org ), undocumented workers paid billions in state and local taxes last year. GE, remember, paid NOTHING. Though conservatives will likely put ITEP alongside FactCheck and PolitiFact as liberal propaganda machines, ITEP is, as the NY Daily News reports,“a prestigious, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that works on federal, state and local tax policy issues.”
So just to recapitulate: GE, which earned $14.2 billion last year, paid ZERO taxes. These hardworking immigrants (and I do mean hardworking – some of them work 2 or 3 or more jobs) paid $11.2 billion in taxes. It’s a fair guess none of them enjoy the lifestyle of any of the heads of the above-named companies on Bernie Sanders’ list of shame.
And just to recapitulate: GE has laid off 21,000 American workers between 2007 and 2009. And that’s not all: it’s also closed 20 factories. Currently more than half its workforce is outside the United States.
All the while we are assured that the immigrants have to go. Sounds to me like perhaps it’s the corporations that should go. Their sins have been made manifest: They’ve already shipped millions of jobs overseas and are busy breaking up the unions that protect workers from abuse and are trying to steal our retirements from us. We’ve already seen that Koch Industries are even telling their employees how to vote.
Immigrants are suddenly not looking very much like a threat.
The average employee hopes for a tiny 2% increase in his wage each year as corporations struggle to lower wages, while the people running those corporations into the ground pull in mega-bonuses of sometimes over 100% of their yearly salary, not to mention huge salary increases in the tens of percent before laying off that worker before he can get that measly 2% raise. What is it that’s supposed to be trickling down again? Bernie Sanders has recently provided us with a list of “corporate freeloaders”:
Exxon Mobil’s 2009 profits totaled $19 billion, yet according to its SEC filings, the company received a $156 million rebate from the IRS plus it didn’t pay any federal taxes.
Bank of America made $4.4 billion in profits last year. This was after it received a $1 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, and a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS.
General Electric has made $26 billion in profits in the United States over the past five years. It’s also received a $4.1 billion tax refund from the IRS. GE has cut a fifth of its American jobs in the past nine years, and is boosting jobs overseas – where tax rates are lower. And where it can continue evading U.S. taxes.
Chevron’s IRS refund last year totaled $19 million but it’s 2009 profits came to a whopping $10 billion.
Boeing received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers. It also received a $124 million refund from the IRS.
Valero Energy made $68 billion in sales and received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS. Over the past three years, it has received a $134 million tax break thanks to the oil and gas manufacturing tax reduction.
Goldman Sachs paid 1.1% of its 2009 income in taxes. Yet it made a profit of $2.3 billion. And guess how much it received from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department?$800 billion.
Citigroup profits last year totaled more than $4 billion. But it paid zero dollars in federal income tax, and received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury...
Scorpio
