The real reason for public finance crisis

[CHIMO]

Nothing better shows corporate control over the government than Washington's basic response to the current economic crisis. First, we had "the rescue", then "the recovery". Trillions in public money flowed to the biggest US banks, insurance companies, etc. That "bailed" them out (is it just me or is there a suggestion of criminality in that phrase?), while we waited for benefits to "trickle down" to the rest of us.

As usual, the "trickle-down" part has not happened. Large corporations and their investors kept the government's money for themselves; their profits and stock market "recovered" nicely. We get unemployment, home-foreclosures, job benefit cuts and growing job insecurity. As the crisis hits states and cities, politicians avoid raising corporate taxes in favour of cutting government services and jobs – witness Wisconsin, etc.

Might government bias favouring corporations be deserved, a reward for taxes they pay? No: corporations – especially the larger ones – have avoided taxes as effectively as they have controlled government expenditures to benefit them.

Compare income taxes received by the federal government from individuals and from corporations (their profits are treated as their income), based on statistics from the Office of Management and the Budget in the White House, and the trend is clear. During the Great Depression, federal income tax receipts from individuals and corporations were roughly equal. During the second world war, income tax receipts from corporations were 50% greater than from individuals. The national crises of depression and war produced successful popular demands for corporations to contribute significant portions of federal tax revenues.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/19/us-taxation-taxavoidance

[lib2DaBone]

1. 13,000 American Corporations are allowed to declare headquarters in the Caymans....

13,000 Corporations use the same mailbox in the Cayman Islands to shelter their income and profits.

Yet they are allowed to ship shoddy, cheap goods, made in China, back into the United States, duty free and tax free.

This is such a sweet deal for the corporations who are raping America.

Now how do you suppose they happen to get away with this?

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Tickle down aka piss on the working class. I believe that

the single most important thing that will help public finance is to get jobs, good paying jobs, for everyone. More wages will equal more tax revenue. They have lost a lot of revenue when they lost jobs and pays have been stagnant or cut. Unemployed people cost the government, working people contribute to the government.

I don't have the answer to how to get good paying jobs, but there are greater minds than mine ready to tackle that situation if the powers that be are willing to take their recommendations.

[bvar22]

3. Amen!

"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone


"By their works you will know them."

[jotsy]

4. There are some other relevant factors here.

First, as of April of last year, it became big news that banks were 'betting' against cities and states throughout the country by purchasing credit default swaps which act like something of an insurance policy. Then, in addition to the bailout and the windfall from overdraft charges, these banks also get to defer property taxes on vacated homes they own. Imagine what this has done to revenue streams at the state and municipal level, and then remember brother Jeb and Newt out a few weeks back advising states and cities to file bankruptcy, like none of their buddies are gonna collect in the event that...

[upi402]

5. We gave banks cash, and employer sit on piles of it

Yet nothing beyond a token gets to us while 'we' had the House of Representatives, Senate, and Whitehouse. I don't know who 'we' is anymore that we donate to, and vote for.