January 16, 2017

The greatest feats of humanity were all government projects.

In Marco Rubio's counterpoint
speech, spoken after the 2013
State of the Union address on
behalf of the Republican Party,
he asserted the post-Nixon-era
postulation that a national econ-
omy rooted in government will
inhibit technological progress;
and that government regulation
only suppresses creativity, while
stifling the economy.
The definitive response to his declarative statement is simple:

1} the Hoover Dam, 2} the Panama Canal, 3} NASA,  4} the Manhattan Project,
5} the Tennessee Valley Project, 6} the Great Wall of China,  7} the B-2 Bomber,
8} the Trans-Siberian Railway, 9} the English Channel Tunnel, 10} the Pan Amer-
ican Highway, 11} the Oresund Bridge that makes a dry road connection between
Denmark & Sweden,

12} the Erie Canal, 13} Christopher Columbus' rediscovery of America, funded
solely through the Spanish government, 14} Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery
Expedition, 15} the ARPANET which is now called the Internet, 16}  the micro-
chip, 17} Global Positioning System satellites, 18} the Apollo moon landings,
19} the Mars Exploration Rover, 20} vaccines,  21} Magellan's Pacific Passage
Voyage, 22} the discovery of the tectonic plates,  23} the discovery of RADAR,

24} the Human Genome Project which was a joint venture between two sovereign
nations, namely the U.S. & the U.K.,  26} the Lighthouse of Alexandria,  27} the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory,  28} the entire CERN operation (Conseil
Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) which happens to be a twelve nation pro-
ject,  28} the United States 6th Army,  29} the United States 7th Fleet,  29} the
United States 8th Air Force,  30} the United States 9th Marine Regiment, 31} the
Hubble Space Telescope,  32} the Voyager 1 Spacecraft which has reached inter-
stellar space, 33+} much more.

Add to this the Rickenbacker Causeway, the Melbourne Causeway, the Courtney
Campbell Causeway, the Sanibel Causeway, the historic Appian Way, the Cassian
Way, the Flaminian Way, and every inch of the 160,955 miles of U.S. highway that
neither the easily deceived Marco nor the pushy Sean Hannity nor Rush Oxycontin
Limbaugh would have at their trickle-down disposal, if it weren't for federal govern-
ment intervention.  Ironically, man landed on the moon under Republican Richard
Nixon.  Of course, today's Republican Party is no longer the party of Nixon, Ford,
Eisenhower, and Lincoln.  It's now the Dixiecrat Party;  the Southern Democrats in
another venue, being that they could not reconcile with the late 1960s' Democratic
advances in civil rights legislation.
__________________________________________________________________

Now, the one criteria absolutely essential for a great economy is flowing currency.
This refers to currency not being horded in overseas tax havens.  In as much, the
overseas tax haven system, coupled with foreign sweatshop labor profiteering, is
what causes a bleeding economy, as well as causing the Multiplier Effect to go in
reverse, thereby causing the money supply to constrict.  It's air being let out of a
tire.

All foreign trade needs to be a two-way street.  When one trading nation imposes
tariffs on the other trading nation, while the other trading nation allows low-waged
labor merchandise to flood its market places, the slave merchandise nation bleeds
money into the tariff-imposing nation.  Thus was the system that lead to the 2008
economic crisis.

Jump slightly back in time, to the 2013 State of the Union Address.  The president
made mention of manufactured economic crises.  Concerning the state of America
in recent years, Obama expressly stated, "... rebuilding from one crisis, to see elect-
ed officials cause another."  He acknowledged that certain players orchestrated the
economic crises that has defined the modern world.  After all, oil futures speculators
and Phil Gramm were the causes of the drastic and sudden rise in petroleum prices.
The Phil Gramms of  this world betrayed the rule of seeking the Common Good, in
preference to line the pockets of a select and corrupt few.

This brings us to the president's proposal on the minimum wage which Ronald Rea-
gan kept frozen throughout his presidencyBarack proposed a $9 an hour minimum
wage.  His thesis statement behind his proposal was, "No one who works full time 
should  have to live in poverty."  Barack additionally stated that United States feder-
al law should "tie minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a 
wage you can live  on."

Raising the wages of workers will put dollars into the economyNo one will lose if
the workers of the United States all get paid a livable wage.  It will result in  more of
of those wage dollars ending up in cash registers throughout America.  This money is
known as disposable income, and the increased circulating dollars is known as an in-
jection into the circular flow of currency.  The added wages will result in added tax
revenue and added FICA payments.  All in all, this increases the Multiplier Effect.

Thus, the Republican policy of NAFTA and Asian sweatshop labor exploitation is
the #1 factor that is continuing to destroy the American economy.  The Republicans
kept causing the multiplier effect to go in reverse.  Republicans are misers, constrict-
ing the money supply, and hording the money for themselves.  This is why, in the cir-
cular flow of history, there regularly occurs Nuremberg type trials.

Obama additionally pointed out that there will be far less need of government wel-
fare and food stamp programs if American workers make a livable wage.  This takes
the economic pressure off of all of America.  The One Percent have been causing this
pressure and grief all along.

Let us go to the Reaganomic thesis statement of "trickle down economics."  Recent
history proved it to be entirely erroneous.  As was explained previously at this site,
Reaganomics was a prediction of wealthy persons' behavior, based on the subjective
Laffer Curve.  Reagan claimed that, if you  make the rich richer, they would take the
extra wealth and invest it in businesses that would create many new American jobs.
This was referred to as the Trickle Down Effect.

As recent history has shown, the added wealth did NOT trickle down to the Ameri-
can people.  It trickled out, into overseas tax havens and those foreign nations that
allowed the exploitation of labor.   The American infrastructure suffered greatly
from all the tax loopholes that deprived the federal government of revenue.  None
the less, tax incentives which reward companies for creating livable waged Ameri-
can job are needed.  The return of some type of manufactury to America in signifi-
cant proportions is needed.  What was reported in Barack's 2013 State of the Union
Address was that a handful of American corporations were bringing back manufac-
turing operations to the United States.  This is essential for America in a larger scale.

NOW ... the important point to this article is that the trickling out of American cur-
rency is still in progress.  It's the previously mentioned musical chairs game where
chair after chair after chair after chair is pulled out from under worker after worker
after worker after worker.  The bath tub draining is still occurring.  That drain must
stop or else it will eventually get to a point where too many people are left out in the
cold.  Economics is not rocket science.  Beware of those who pretend it's based on
magicians' tricks.
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January 4, 2017

Federal Tax Statistics of 280 Surveyed Corporations

The statistics of two-hundred and eighty profitable corporations, between 2008 and
 2010, were surveyed by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation  and 
Economic Policy.  It's a display of objective numerical facts:

http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/CorporateTaxDodgersReport.pdf

 1}  Corporate taxes paid for a quarter of the U.S. federal budget during the 1950's.
       They paid for 20% of the federal budget in the 1960s.  By the late 1990's, cor-
        porations were only paying for 11% of the federal budget.  Today, corporate
        taxes pay for a mere 6% of the federal government's expenses.  This includes
        the $729 billion DOD and Homeland Security tax bill, and this shows that the
        Republican Party repeatedly lied to the American public, in incessantly claim-
        ing that corporations are weighted-down with unbearable and disproportionate
        tax burdens.  Right wing radio talk show hosts would logically be included in
        this lie.

  2} The average 3-year pre-tax profit for the 280 corporations was $4.832 billion.
       The 280 corporations' average effective tax rate for the same period was 18.5%.
       For the Years 2009 and 2010, it was 17.3%.  These are much lower rates than
       the present statutory tax rate of 35%.  In as much, American corporations bene-
       fited from federal tax subsidies as a rule and not as an exception.  Some corpora-
       tions even received rebate checks.  Therefore, the Republican Party's incessant
       claim that corporations in America are being crushed under an oppressive federal
       tax burden is an unconscionable falsehood.

2b} The average effective tax rate of 30 surveyed corporations was MINUS 6.7%,
        meaning that 30 corporations made money, simply by filling out tax forms.
        The average effective tax rate of 67 other corporations was 0%.  In addition,
        111other corporations had an average tax rate of 4.6%.  That's 4 point 6.
        Meanwhile, 98 different corporations had an average rate of 24%, and an
        additional 71 corporations had an average tax rate of 32.3%.

  3} 78 of the corporations surveyed had at least one of the three years where they
        paid zero or less income tax.  25 of the corporation had multiple no-tax years.
        These 78 corporations had a total of 108 no-tax years, out of a potential 234. 
        The average 3-yr effective tax rate of the 78 corporations was MINUS 14%.

 3b} In the Year 2008, the 22 corporations who paid zero income tax received a
        collective total of $3.3 billion in tax rebates.  In 2009, the 49 corporations who
        paid zero income tax originally made a collective pre-tax profit of $78.6 billion
        and then received a collective $10.8 billion in tax rebates.  In the Year 2010,
        the 37 corporations who paid zero income tax ended up receiving $7.8 billion
        in tax rebates.

  4} Pepco Holdings, General Electric, PG&E Corp, Boeing, and El Paso each paid
       zero taxes for three consecutive years.

 4b} Pepco's pre-tax profit was $882 million and its after-tax profit was $508 million.
        This means that it's tax rate was MINUS 57%.  General Electric's pre-tax pro-
        fit, for the three-year period, was $10.46 billion.  It received $4.73 billion in re-
        bates, meaning that its tax rate was MINUS 45.2%.  PG&E Corp's pre-tax
        profit was $4.855 billion.  It then received $1.027 billion in tax rebates.  This
        translates into an effective federal tax rate of MINUS 21.2%.

 4c} Goldman Sachs' pre-tax profit was $4.909 billion.  It received $786 million in
        tax rebates.  Therefore, its three-year tax rate was MINUS 16%.  Dupont's
        pre-tax profit was $949 million and it received $109 million.  This constitutes
        an effective tax rate was MINUS 11.5%.  International Paper's pre-tax profit
        was $217 billion.  It then received $249 billion in tax rebates.  Its effective tax
        rate, therefore, was MINUS 114.7%.  Plus, there is Eli Lilly, whose pre-tax
        profit was $202 million.  It received a tax rebate of $208 million, thereby re-
        sulting in an effective tax rate was MINUS 102.9%.  In contrast, the effective
        tax rate of St. Jude Medical was 37.5%.  In fact, it was 46.2% in 2010.  As
        an added example of tax rate disparity, Coventry Health Care's effective tax
        rate was 40.8%.  Humana's was 39.1%.  However, Marathon Oil's tax rate
        was MINUS 40.6% and Exxon/Mobile's was MINUS 38.3%.

 4d} Marathon Oil's pre-tax profit was $571 million and it received $232 million in
         tax rebates.  Exxon Mobil's pre-tax profit was $2,490 billion for a three year
         period and it received $954 million in tax rebates.  In addition, Honeywell's
         pre-tax profit was $2.966 billion.  It received $510 million, meaning that its
         effective tax rate was MINUS 17.2%.  Yet, Best Buy's was +39.3%.

 4e} The truck manufacturer, Paccar, had an effective tax rate of MINUS 72.6%.
        State Street Corp's effective federal tax rate was MINUS 121.1%.  Com-
        puter Science's effective federal tax rate was MINUS 63.4%.  Omnicare's
        tax rate was MINUS 76.1%.

   5} Wells Fargo received $17.960 billion in total tax subsidies.  AT&T received a
        total of $14.491 billion.  Verizon Communications received $12.332 billion in
        tax breaks.  General Electric received $8.393 billion.  IBM received $8.265
        billion and Exxon/Mobil received $4.096 billion.  Walmart received $2.511
        billion in tax rebates, while Coca-Cola received $2.461 billion.

  6} The effective tax rate for the ten Top Defense Contractors in the Year 2010
        was 10.6%, an effective rate much lower than the statutory 35% corporate
        income tax rate.

 6b} The effective corporate tax rate for the Retail and Wholesale Industry, for the
        past three years, was 30%.  This means that a National Sales Tax would be
        detrimental to the United States.  Quite frankly, it would be disastrous.  This
        illustrates that Coca-Cola Cain doesn't know what he's talking about.  A per-
        son who does know what he's talking about uses formulas to convey his pro-
        posed policy. Such a formula will have at least one variable, signified as "x" or
        "n."  If the candidate uses the letter "n," it's a sign that his staff consists in those
        educated in statistics, able to perform functions known as geometric progres-
        ssions.  9-9-9 has ZERO basis in fact or academic conjecture.  It's an adver-
        tising jingle, as if it were an attempt to sale Cola and Pizza.

 6c} The average tax rate for the Healthcare Industry was 30.4%, for the past three
        years.  This is the industry which needs tax breaks which, in turn, need to trans-
        late into lower medical costs.

 6d} The effective tax rate for Information Technology Services was only 2.5% for
         the past three years, and the effective tax rate of the Telecommunications In-
         dustry was 8.2%.

   7} The Financial Industry received $37.4 billion in tax subsidies.  The Utilities,
        Gas & Electric Industry received $31.2 billion.  The Oil, Gas & Pipeline In-
        dustry received $24.1 billion.  Meanwhile, the Telecommunications Industry
        received $30 billion in tax subsidies.

   8} The Foreign Tax Rate of 134 of the surveyed corporations was actually 6.1%
        HIGHER than those same corporations' effective American tax rate.  In the
        case of 87 of the corporations, their effective American tax rates were 15.7%
        LOWER than their Foreign Tax Rates.   In as much, the statistical average
        proves that the Republican Party lied each time it claimed that corporations
        must operate outside of America, because the tax rate in America is too high.

 8b} Concerning a corporations' U.S. Tax Rate in relation to its Foreign Tax Rate,
        General Electric paid 68.2% LESS in American taxes than in foreign taxes.
        Goldman Sachs paid 23.7% LESS.  Mattel paid 42% LESS.  Chevron paid
        18.7% LESS.  Eli Lilly paid 30.6% LESS.  IBM paid 23.1% LESS.  Truck
        manufacturer, Paccar, had an American tax rate that was 55.3% LESS than
        its foreign tax rate.
          
   9} One reason for such low effective corporate tax rates is the rapid write off of
        capital investments.  This is known as accelerated depreciation and this shows
        that manufacturing can return to America in an amicable fashion.

 10} There is even unfair disparity among corporations in the same industry.  For
        example, FedEx paid 0.9% in tax over the past three years, while UPS paid
        24%.  This shows that the Republican Party once again lied in claiming that
        the American economy is based on "fair competition."

10b} Further examples of inter-industry disparity include the following statistics
         Hewlett-Packard paid 3.7% in taxes, while Texas Instruments paid 33.5%.
         Monsanto paid an average of 22% in income tax throughout the past three
         years, while its competitor, Dupont, had a tax rate of MINUS 3.4%.  Also
         in the computer and office equipment industry is the fact that Corning's tax
         rate was MINUS 0.2%, while Pintey Bowes' rate was 30.4%.  As an add-
         ed instance, Wells Fargo had an effective tax rate of MINUS 1.4%, while
         Charles Schwab had an effective tax rate of 30.2%.  Even corporations get
         cheated by corporate greed.

         The following is Must Reading for anyone dedicated to economic justice.

http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/CorporateTaxDodgersReport.pdf
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