Tuesday, April 21, 2009

WHAT TEABAGGERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN PROTESTING

I came across this at Campaign for America's Future today. It came from an article by Mike Papantonio at The Huffington Post. This is what the "teabaggers" should have been protesting about, the buddies of the ass-hat that came up with the idea of the "teabagging" protests, Rick Santelli. It's his pals who have billions of dollars stashed in off-shore accounts to avoid paying taxes on that money.

From The Huffington Post:

The Real Tax Outrage

Rick Santelli is an unlikely character to be complaining about taxes and deficits. But it knocks on the door of absurdity when you recognize that he was an organizer of the not- so-spectacular teabagger protest. The head teabagger, Santelli, never protested when George Bush handed out $150 billion to AIG and $29 billion to Bear Stearns. We never heard a word from the head teabagger when his Wall Street cronies were bailed out with taxpayers' money. But Santelli showed indignant outrage when President Obama began spending money on Americans losing their homes to foreclosure. That Santelli teabagging crowd was outraged when Obama created a stimulus package to put average Americans back to work.

I have some great news for the Santelli crowd. But it's probably not what their Wall Street pals are going to want to hear. The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) found billions of dollars hidden in offshore corporate tax havens. This would no doubt upset the teabaggers to know that there is more than 100 billion dollars worth of tax shelters offshore created by many of Santelli's Wall Street pals. We don't have money to pay for schools, teachers, new roads, and health care, but billions of dollars are sitting in no-ask no-pay corporate tax shelters offshore.


Go read the rest here.

Then there's this from the US PIRG:

Close Corporate Tax Loopholes

Each year, America loses hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue because major corporations, federal government contractors, and Wall Street insiders fail to pay their fair share of taxes.


As part of his 2010 budget, President Obama has proposed aggressive action against corporate tax loopholes and wasteful subsidies.

Our new report, Tax Shell Game, highlights the widespread use of corporate tax havens and their effect on taxpayers.

How You Can Help

Call your representative

Call your representatives and support President Obama's 2010 budget which eliminates wasteful subsidies and abusive tax shelters and loopholes. Click here to take action.

Overview

Loopholes in the tax codes allow corporations to pay less taxes than citizens do. The president’s plan makes the tax code fair and creates more revenue. Here are the changes proposed:

1. Generate $210 billion in revenue by closing off shore tax havens that shield some of the nation’s biggest financial institutions from paying the US government.

2. Generate $23 billion by making sure hidden profits made by hedge fund and private equity managers are accounted for and thus provide an above board income stream for the government.

3. Generate $844 million by making sure government contractors pay their taxes in full.

In addition, the President’s plan helps to pay for clean energy programs with a $31 billion investment generated by eliminating inefficiencies, tax giveaways and subsidies in the tax code which currently benefit oil and gas companies.

6 comments:

A World Quite Mad said...

Oh, and this doesn't even begin to touch on the UBS scandal. You know, all those rich people who put money in accounts in Switzerland so they won't have to pay taxes on the interest, and UBS helped them file false tax returns.

Yeah, and the rich feel the need to complain about paying too much in taxes. I'd bet my last dollar that the majority of the rich people in this country have accounts with a Swiss bank and don't report it.

Grandpa Eddie said...

Yeah AWGM, Swiss accounts and down in the Cayman Islands.

Something needs to be done about this, and all those guilty of tax evasion need to spend some time in prison....and I don't mean some country club prison either.

Lowell said...

It's a world gone mad! These people claim to be capitalists and maybe so but they are also anarchists - they have no morals or ethics.

Grandpa Eddie said...

"....they have no morals or ethics."

Great point Jacob.

SheaNC said...

I wish I could be more optimistic about this, but I have little faith that justice will be done. The power elite, who rule all, are too well protected, I think. I know I sound like a wasko conspiracy theorist. But a clear-headed, sharp-eyed look around reveals a wacko world. Justice on such a grand scale is bought and paid for by the select few. Thus it has been and shall (probably) ever be...

...until they reduce us to the level of stone-age-post-nuclear-winter-savages of course. Then we will feast on them.

Grandpa Eddie said...

I wish I could say you're wrong, Shea, I really wish I could, but I think you're right. Nothing is going to change because the people who could do something about it get their campaign financing from those who hide their money.