Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Did you know that...

Before you review our comments on the GOP 2012 budget proposal in the next blog post there are a few factoids that might be of interest.  Some of them are just fun.
Did you know that we could cut the federal deficit in half by just allowing the recently extended Bush tax cuts to expire?  That’s right; we can cut the deficit in half by doing nothing.
Did you know that although the Republican Party is often consider the party of the business community; the business community historically does better when a Democrat sits in the White House?  Consider this:  when Clinton was in office the DOW Industrial Average ROSE from approximately 3000 points in 1993 to 11,000 points in 2000.  When George W. Bush held the White House the DOW DECLINED from 11,000 points in the year 2000 to 8,000 points in 2008.  When Barak Obama took over the White House the DOW ROSE from 8,000 in points in 2008 to approximately 13,000 points through the first quarter of 2011.
Pundits often write about the huge transfer of wealth in our society.  They are right.  In 2010 compensation for corporate CEO’s rose 27% while wages for the average worker remained flat.  Want more proof.  While poor and middle class workers suffered through massive layoffs, reduced benefits and 16% real unemployment; American Corporations recorded the highest profit growth since 1950.  If the current trend continues for the rest of the year US corporations will generate a record $1.68 trillion on PROFITS in 2011.  Check this out:
General Electric - $14.2 billion in profits
Goldman-Sachs - $8.3 billion in profits
GM - $4.7 in profits
Google - $18.9 billion in profits
Exxon - $149 (yes that’s one hundred and forty nine) billion in profits.

But we wouldn’t want to hinder these big companies with any tax burden because they generate jobs…right?  So while the little guy struggles to pay his fair share we give big corporations tax breaks.  Check this out:
Exxon - 2009 - $19 billion in profits; zero taxes paid; $156 million dollars in rebates.
Bank of America – 2010 - $4.4 billion in profits; zero taxes paid; $1.9 billion tax refund
GE – 5yr - $26 billion in profits; zero taxes paid; $4.1 billion tax refund.
Do you remember Transocean Ltd?  They are the outfit that owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded last year killing eleven workers and dumping millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf?  Well it seems they had a very good year.  In fact they recently announced that they were paying their executives bonuses based on “their outstanding safety record in 2010.”  If 2010 was a good year from a safety standpoint just think what the bonuses would have been if they hadn’t killed eleven people and caused the worst environmental disaster in US history.






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