Of last year’s 100 highest-paid corporate executives in the United States, 25 earned more in pay than their company recorded as a tax expense in 2010.
Those 25 firms reported average global profits of $1.9 billion. Among the 25 were Verizon, Bank of New York Mellon, General Electric, Boeing and eBay.
That's just pay. It does not include additional benefits.
You can read about that in this Washington Post story, itself based on a study released today by the Institute for Policy Studies.
To further irritate you, also consider this:
Eighteen of the 25 firms last year operated subsidiaries in countries that the U.S. Government Accountability Office and other groups have identified as tax havens, one of the report’s authors said.
The piece is short. I will not quote more.
But also consider this. One of the corporations is Verizon, which has been attempting to slash all compensation including benefits for its workers, as if it were not making huge profits.
Also consider this - many of the corporations involved, including Verizon, are receiving tax subsidies from the government far in excess of what they pay - if they pay anything - in corporate taxes.
Finally remember this - at least in the Reagan administration people like Ed Meese were straightforward in their direct opposition to corporate taxation, claiming it was double taxation (umm, the average worker is taxed twice on income, since s/he does not get a deduction for payroll taxes paid, while the corporate share is a deduction from taxable income, so who is really being double taxed). Were Republicans and corporate executives today to come out directly against corporate taxation they know it might not play politically.
So please consider this: it is not that the government is spending too much. It is that some players are more equal than others, and wealthy individuals and corporations are the ones most "more equal" in not paying their fair share.
And finally consider this. If you don't make enough to pay federal income taxes, some of these characters think you don't pay enough taxes and want you to pay more - in federal taxes, even though every dime you earn is subject to payroll taxes and except for what you spend on housing and medical, probably everything else is also taxed - excise taxes, sales taxes, real estate taxes (if you can afford to own, which you probably cannot).
Our tax system does need to be fixed, but not further in the direction of the wealthy and the corporations. We need a populist reform of our tax structure before we completely turn into a banana republic.
Just saying.