Friday, May 21, 2010

Tax System Will Pass BP's Spill Cost To Taxpayers

In one of the earlier phases of the American meltdown, the IRS gave the big banks a special tax cut. They were given an exemption from tax law that will give them up to 20 years of tax deductions. BP may not get the sweet heart deal the IRS gave to the big banks because after all Secretary Geithner worked for Goldman Sachs, the company that funneled nearly a million dollars into the President’s campaign. But even without the perks of bought influence they can still write off the cost of cleaning up the disaster they created. Every penny they spend will be recorded as an extraordinary business expense and go to reduce their tax burdens. Ultimately, this means that the taxpayers will foot the bill for BP’s gross neglect.

As usual in America they claim that profit is due to the efforts of the capitalist class. It is deemed the product of their individual skill and is the sacred right of the rich. Expense on the other hand is the worker’s problem. Like risk it must be borne by the working class taxpayers. Whether that expense is the normal cost of business or the burden of cleaning up yet another disaster wrought by the stupidity, greed and hubris of the few – the cost is passed on to the many.

The result of this twisted logic is that 72 percent of corporations pay zero tax. Remember, this includes only corporations that paid zero $0.00 in taxes – if they paid a dime they were not included in this number. What percentage of corporations pay more than zero but far less than fair is not known. As you may have noticed, Government spending does not decline to meet this loss in revenue. It continues and most of it is spent on contracts with the very same corporations. For every dollar business evades paying, the working taxpayer has to make up for the taxes lost to the government. It is a brutally unfair system at its very core and minor tinkering here and there will not address its basic injustice.

2 comments:

  1. AMEN! Why do we think ANYTHING done in the name of profit is good? Why is it okay for corporations to rape the planet?

    If you rape my child and then say "That's okay, I'll pay you for the damage." everyone sees the wrong in that(though it's okay by some Old Testament standards).

    Why is it so different when our ocean is brutalized?

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