Corporate Tax Cuts: Profiteers Thrive As Local Budgets Dive

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/28-4



New report shows that while Main Street faces austerity, Wall Street gets tax cuts

Corporate Tax Cuts: Profiteers Thrive As Local Budgets Dive
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
Published on Friday, March 28, 2014 by Common Dreams

Years after the "Great Recession" hit, 10 million people in the U.S are out of work, inequality is stuck at high levels, and vital public services are being cut nation-wide. Yet, according to a new study, corporations are making a killing during these hard times — enjoying climbing profits yet lower corporate taxes.

Entitled The Disappearing Corporate Tax Base: How to Reclaim Lost Tax Revenue to Rebuild State Budgets, the report was published Thursday by the Center for Effective Government and National People’s Action.

Its authors argue that the decreases in corporate income taxes since the beginning of the recession have "demonstrably harmed state and federal budgets and the provision of services those funds pay for." According to the report, this decline in corporate taxes is a long term trend that has continued throughout the great recession, as the following graph from the report shows. Between 2008 and 2012, corporate taxes decreased in 35 of the 46 states that have corporate income taxes, according to the report.



Meanwhile, since 2011, "federal aid to states for vital services like schools, roads, and environmental protection has been on a downward spiral," the report notes. This was accompanied by a decrease in taxes on rich people and corporations by right-wing governors and state legislators across the country.

[justhanginon]

1. The sad part is that they

then take the increasing profits and turn a large portion those profits into ever more campaign contributions (read bribery) and supporting conservative PACS. Until there is a way to prevent this wholesale corruption of our political system it will only get worse. Any relief from our so called Supreme Court does not appear to be on the horizon as long as the 5-4 corporate owned majority rules.
I sometimes wonder if we have reached a point where there is in reality nothing we can do since it is all driven by greed and the fact that our senators and representatives care nothing about the average constituent like myself who has no money to contribute hence no voice.
Personally I hope they all rot in the hell they are creating for the citizens of this country.