W = Government by the rich, for the rich...

Here's another prime example of W administration tax policy for U.S. corporations: the American Jobs Creation Act (or as I call it: pay minimal taxes on foreign earnings with few if any restrictions). This law allows multinational, U.S. based corporations to replace normal corporate taxes with a reduced rate of 5.25 percent if the earnings are "repatriated" (whatever that means -- on the surface it's supposed to mean if they bring the money back to the U.S. and create jobs by directly investing it here -- but the provisions for this are very sketchy, so corporations can basically do almost whatever they want as long as they appear to do it in the U.S. via its banks, lawyers, etc.).

Quoting from CFO.com: http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3710986/c_3711269
"Though the purpose of the tax holiday is to enable multinationals to use the tax savings to create jobs back home, some experts are skeptical about how many jobs will actually be created., without specific language in the legislation earmarking the tax savings for jobs creation, the repatriated amounts may be used by firms (to pay down debt or buy back stock , according to a recent story in CFO. In other words, jobs might be created only as a side effect of strengthening companies’ financial health."

It is expected that as much as $300B will be "repatriated" under the law this year.

So if one assumes a typical average corporate tax rate of say 30% (these are profitable corporations: IBM, Johnson&Johnson, Dell, etc. so by IRS law they would pay corporate rates of 30-35%) then simple math shows that the U.S. treasury shortfall this year from this legislation is $75B (30 - 5.25) = 24.75% = .2475 * 300B = $75B.

Now stop and think about who makes up the difference when U.S. corporations renege on the basic principle of "pay your fair share?" Answer: You, me, and future generations (children and grandchildren) -- personal and small business tax payers who do not own, run, or profit directly from multinational corporations. Was your tax rate reduced to 5.25 percent last year? Mine sure wasn't!

So why would anyone earning less than perhaps $300-500K/year ever cast a vote for someone like W? Well, here's my best guess: because the neo-cons have sold the U.S. taxpayer a bill of goods, starting with Reagan (and for a time I too bought it along with the apparent voting majority). And the lie is: Government = BAD. Corporation = GOOD.

But without government, without "democracy" having any teeth in the forms of taxation, regulation and basic protection for those most vulnerable, including someday perhaps more than a few of us, then the current state of affairs is what we get, specifically: corporate profit and worker fear. Fear of job loss, or at best, of never being able to stop working for wages. IMO, if you're under 50 in this country, you don't even think or talk about retirement anymore. Does the concept really even exist if you're under 50 in this country? Certainly not in my vocabulary. Not when virtually everything I own (except my 1890 house and 1960 pickup) seems built to fall apart or at best obsolesce, and my power bill (not to mention my property taxes) increase perpetually above the so called "core rate" of inflation.

Then there's the stock market. Yes, the DOW, the market index of the biggest, fattest, most powerful U.S. corporations (and I work for one) is at a 3 1/2 year high. So just put as much money (e.g. your 401K, soon, as per W, your Social Security payments) into the stock market and everyone will be safe and the future will be bright. Yeah, right!? Unfortunately, the stock market (and to a lesser degree real estate) is a PONZI SCHEME that depends forever on you selling to someone else at a profit. And just take a wild guess whom the last 100M people to get OUT of such a scheme are likely to be: YOU and ME. We, Joe and Jane Six-pack, waiting to cash out our 401Ks and social security retirement accounts before it's too late.

So I say it's time to stop this. It's time to demand accountability and fairness, from our government (which spends $20K per household per year, but borrows $3K of that, basically from China and Japan in the form of treasury bond sales) AND from our corporations. It's time to vote nationally for reformers like Elliot Spitzer and others who understand that without a strong, responsible government, without corporate fairness and social equity, THERE IS NO MIDDLE CLASS. And IMO, that is exactly what the people behind W and his government by the rich, for the rich intend.

Todd Ryder

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