The Top Ten Reasons America is Broke
 

1) Exxon Mobile made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

The problem isn’t that we can’t afford social services, or that we’re wasteful with our government spending, or that the nation is ‘broke’, the problem is that the wealthy have set up a system where they can avoid paying taxes. They have subverted the government into a tool for profit rather than a tool for societal stability.

Source: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/n...4-a27f59d70de5

disgusting...

wow.......8chars

:disgust:disgust

its the bro club at a greater level

hows microcrap on paying taxes?

Simple solution: buy some shares of stock in the above companies and it won't bother you anymore :thumbsup

and then you think that paying taxes is way to go...

i think the war and occupying like over half the world territories takes up more cash.

And the trailer park conservatives are still waiting for the money to trickle down to them.

Happy Americans paying all their taxdollars to give multibillion dollar corporations billions more dollars straight out of their pockets. God damn it must be great to be American. The American Dream at it's finest right there. :1orglaugh


PS. Canada does it too.

well the good thing is that we're not fighting battles on our own soil. :2 cents:

Now look and see how many people those companies employ. Tax em and see how many they fire. Oh wait then we'll have more tax money to pay for the newly unemployed social services so I guess that'll work!

i'd like to see some real breaks for people who run small businesses. why should small businesses have to take it up the ass to help cover what these guys don't pay taxes on? if they fire a bunch of people because they are taxed, then it should be obvious that any business shouldn't be taxed. if the big guys can't 'afford' to pay taxes then surely the little guys can't either.

Everyone's corrupt these days. And there is no way to fix it.

be corrupt yourself...

problem solved...

works for me... :thumbsup






.

how do people not understand carrying previous tax years losses forward? then circle-jerk around that.

Great example :thumbsup

.

While the mentally handicapped liberals continue to blame the rich for this country's problems, once again showing they have a child's grasp of economics.

__________________
:warning This is sig area! :warning
        &# 160;http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/...kiemonster.gif

YOU Only said ONE Company did not pay any federal income tax.

Just because you got a REFUND, means you paid to much.
(how much these companies pay is what should be looked at)
(yes I believe to many tax breaks are given)

Lots of AMERICANS get tax Refunds every year, so quit that also?
Just saying, debates are plays on numbers.

The only reason the US has a deficit is because the bottom 46% pay no income tax.
If these leaches paid just $2k a year things would be vastly different.

Oh, and the idiots who think our problems lay with corporations appearently don't understand that every dime that leaves a corporation and goes into someone's pocket is taxed.

Edit: I seen more than one that you said paid NO Federal income tax.
I see your Point, hope you can see mine as well.

During the Regan years, corporations paid nearly 30% of the total taxes in this country, today they barely pay 6%. In fact, when Regan saw a GE tax return early in his presidency, he was disgusted and started making corporate tax changes, and he wasn't exactly a socialist.

I've said this before, the wealthy in this country can control the debate and that's why the debate was first on keeping taxes low and now on spending cuts. Because if we don't make massive cuts in spending, eventually the wealthy will have to pay their fare share of taxes, and they don't want to.

Basically, the ultra wealthy sucked out all the value in this country. The banks robbed everyone of the equity in their homes, when the banks collapsed it sucked the value out of everyone's 401K plan yet the banks were all repaid within a week via tax dollars. They shipped everyone's job overseas and got a tax break in the process for doing so. And now they don't want to pay a dime in taxes. Yet idiots still fall for the old tricks of blaming immigrants or union workers, or teachers, or whoever else the ultra wealthy blame to keep the spotlight off of themselves.

Happens every day.

I know someone, and she made over 40K last year, and didn't work a single day.
Well she did work the system.

Don't you watch FOX News? Has nothing to do with the corporations. It's the teacher's fault, apparently. Those blood sucking leeches, living the high life with their $70K/year!

/sarcasm

Watch Inside Job,

That will tell you why :thumbsup

I would disagree. Here is why. In 2009 the census showed that there were around 330 million Americans and that around 120 million of them were actually employed and earned money. 46% means around 55 million of them paid no takes. So if all of them paid $2K as you suggest it would put around 110 billion in the governments coffers. That is no small amount, but it only around .7% of the national debt. So that money would lower the deficit by not even 1%.

You could also argue that this would be 110 billion that would now be taken directly out of the coffers of the wealthy and the business owners. The reason is simple. If they had that money they would be spending it. Since they are going to be paying it in taxes that is $2K less that they will spend on clothes, certain foods (like going out to eat), entertainment or whatever. You could also argue that most of the people who lose that money would then file for food stamps or some other kind of aid to help make up for it. Of the 46% who pay no takes at least half of them make less than $25K per year. So this $2K is a significant amount of money to them. The government might get $2K out of the single working mom in extra taxes only to turn around and give her $3K per year in food stamps.

I'm not saying the answer it to tax the rich. The clear answer it to cut spending so that everyone across the board can enjoy lower more fair taxes, but just having the bottom 46% pay an extra $2K per year in taxes is going to do next to nothing to fix the system.

That's so true:2 cents:

america is broke?

that's odd, just read several reports claiming we are still the top economy on the planet.

and if we were broke, those wouldn't be the top 10 reasons at all.

look up the estimates of irs revenues lost due to individuals not paying taxes.

pretty sure the war in iraq cost well over $1 trillion, seems like a lot of money to not count. let alone 10 years in afghanistan.

then, we can start to look at many other things that we spend on carelessly.

The really pathetic thing is that more people really believe that than don't :disgust

As for the big corporations, there really was a time that when they did well the country at large did well too... but that was long ago.

Freddy and Fanny are the reason we are broke.... they crash our economy and cost 3 plus trillion a year, for the better part of a decade. get rid of them issue fixed

those are 2 great reasons why our debt is so high right now, yes, but i am not aware that the u.s. is broke. anyone have a link to support this claim?

Personally, at this point, I say just nationalize the banking industry. Really, just like the post office. The banks would accept deposits, allow you to withdraw, lend a bit of money, and make sure they make a 2% profit. That's it though, and nothing more. Have strict laws saying any profit over 2% goes to pay off the debt.

Banks should be there to provide a service to the public, and not to rape & pillage the public.

You even realize the USPS is losing money and going broke? Not a great example and in fact I doubt you can find an example of any gov agency that is fiscally sound.

the details reveal the truth:

usps is a revenue generating machine.

Trickle down my ass ...
 

"the USPS has lost $2.3 billion"... pretty clear that it's not?

or you actually think that "would have" is a valid excuse?
"USPS would have made 50 Billion profit if it wasn't for the $3/gallon gas"... :1orglaugh

If you selectively exclude expenses, you can make ANY business appear profitable...:2 cents:

And so is the banking industry.. except for those pesky employees you have to pay for, and if it were nationalized guess what even HIGHER retirement costs! So your plan sucks ballz

i simply pointed out that the reasons are in the details and the usps generates significant operating revenues. it's not my plan, i voiced no opinion. blow me.

Ah no .. the reason America is broke is you haven't quite figured out yet that if you spend more than you earn then you owe money. Keep doing it for long enough and you go broke :) Pretty simple .. don't blame business for your countries idiocy.

LOL, best google current USPS situations.
They are raising rates, trying to cut Saturday service, and doing some shady hiring practices, and still losing hundres of millions.

I also heard USPS doesn't have to pay taxes since it is a Gov Agency.....

UPS turned a 88% profit last quarter...... I know reasons why, and it sucks, just saying they pay this gas also.

Epass would of turned a profit if it wasn't for the Movie Middle men, haha

Yes, but one of the reasons for that is probably this really neat, new invention called the internet. You may not have heard of it yet, because it's still pretty new, but it's amazing! No longer do you have to write a letter, stuff an envelope, and drive to your local post office, then wait several days for a response.

With the internet, you can send messages within seconds from the convenience of your own home.

It's amazing, I tells ya!

spending more than you have + giving other peoples money away to both the rich and poor = huge fail

apples and oranges. ups is a global corp and most of those profits were a result of asian expansion, usps is domestic only and has to operate under congressional guidelines.

i'd like to see ups profit margins when they have to honor a congressional mandate re: employee pensions in addition to being domestic only.

Yet it doesnt occur to you that it costs only 44 cents to send a letter that will get anywhere in the country in less than 3 days through USPS and to send that same letter through UPS would cost over $20.

United States Postal Service = Evil
UPS = Good

Society is brainwashed .... :2cents