30 Companies paid more in lobbying then they did in taxes.

[crownjules]

You are aware that the economic collapse was directly caused by government interference in the banking and mortgage industries, right?

So it was government who pushed the banks to over leverage themselves and place bad bets? The government instructed them to package junk mortgages together and trick regulators into rating them as Triple-A investments? It's the government that told AIG and the like to insure all these investment schemes?

No. Government may have prodded a little bit and the failure of a few million sub-prime mortgages would have hurt our economy. But it was the greedy and fraudulent actions of the banks that carried us to the brink of destruction.

edit: To be on topic, it's disgusting that lobbying is so necessary. I don't necessarily think the answer is just less government. Lobbying will always exist as companies try to influence politics to their favor. I'm not sure what the answer is to this problem.

 

[Ausm]

You are aware that the economic collapse was directly caused by government interference in the banking and mortgage industries, right?

Yeah called deregulation.....

 

[Doppel]

OP ftw, it literally is fvcking politics in this country. Lobbyists are completely destroying the will of the people to choose their government without corruption.

 

[bfdd]

A good example of a loophole was the $7500 electric car tax credit. People for a while were buying electric golf carts for $7500, getting the full tax credit, and then selling or leasing the golf carts to clubs to get their full value back. $7500 free money.

Another good one I heard about (although not a tax loophole) was the mint trying to get people to adopt the $1 coins by selling them for $1 with free shipping on their website. People would buy $10,000 worth of coins on their credit card, deposit the coins in the bank, and pay off the credit card. Free credit card rewards / airline miles for you, thousands of dollars of waste for the government shipping coins back and forth. :hmm:

lol it's funny you bring up those coin things because a co-worker of mine was telling me about it a couple months ago. made off pretty well doing that.

 

[airdata]

How much does GE spend to employ people to get them 10billion in tax breaks?

 

[EagleKeeper]

OP ftw, it literally is fvcking politics in this country. Lobbyists are completely destroying the will of the people to choose their government without corruption.

The people have the option to choose government that has not been corrupted. They choose not to.
Because the people have been corrupted by the handouts expected from the current government

 

[Ausm]

The people have the option to choose government that has not been corrupted. They choose not to.
Because the people have been corrupted by the handouts expected from the current government

What handouts? I haven't received any but then again I am self sufficient.

 

[sm625]

What's wrong with this picture? Corporate cash is killing our Democracy.

But Americans keep putting their 401k money into these companies. They keep buying their products. We just too yuppity to care.

 

[jstern01]

That is why we need to lower the corporate rate to around 20% and get rid of all deductions except health insurance. That would take care of this problem. Government can not be trusted to do anything right.

While the stature corporate rate is 35%, the effective corporate is around 17%, which is 3% lower than your suggested rate. How about this lower corporate rates to 25% and no deductions period. See how fast they scream. Lowering the corporate rate to 20% would probably make their effective rate around 9.7% with current rules.

As to government not doing anything right that is just plain stupidity. The government does a lot of things right, but we have been brained washed into believing that government is the problem because some politician said so.

 

[Fern]

While the stature corporate rate is 35%, the effective corporate is around 17%, which is 3% lower than your suggested rate. How about this lower corporate rates to 25% and no deductions period. See how fast they scream. Lowering the corporate rate to 20% would probably make their effective rate around 9.7% with current rules.
-snip-

I believe the effective is higher than 17%. But my point is that many business DO pay the 35%. Not all industries/businesses have special tax breaks available to them.

Fern

 

[cubby1223]

what's a tax loophole?

It's what "the left" gives to businesses when they need to raise campaign funds, and cry foul over when they need the votes of "the people".