Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
Business Leaders Need to Speak Out
7/30/2011 8:53:27 AM
Supporting reactionary politicans just isn't
good business.
It’s time for responsible businessmen to step up. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and others have agreed to give away half of their billions to the poor. But there’s nary a word about corporations paying their fair share in taxes. The corporate tax rate is 35%, but few pay anywhere near this much because of lobbyists, tax lawyers, and politicians who believe that “Greed is good.” A “60 Minutes” episode revealed a Texas oil supply company involved in the Gulf spill maintained a home office in Zug, Switzerland, where the tax rate was only 15%. Worse yet, the office was staffed by a secretary who said she had never seen the corporate leaders.
Here in Minnesota, Jim Pohlad, owner of the Minnesota Twins, did step up, publishing a full-page ad in the Minneapolis Star Tribune (along with 200 other business leaders) a request to have their taxes raised. Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, governor at the time, responded cynically, saying “I’ll take your check.” Pohlad and other decent businessmen need to step up and speak out long and hard until hack politicians and clueless voters hear them. The Chamber of Commerce needs to stop financing reactionary political campaigns. They represent Main Street America, not Exxon. They certainly don’t represent small business as the GOP would like you to believe. If that were the case, we’d still have Mom and Pop businesses along Main Street instead of ubiquitous franchises selling suspect burgers and chicken.
The gap between the rich and poor has never been so wide. The Economic Policy Institute calculates median net worth of blacks at $2,200 to $97,000 for whites. Corporate salaries have risen 24% since before the recession. Corporate leaders maintain they can’t hire because of the unstable debt situation, regulation, and because their present work force now does the work those who were laid off used to do. I wonder how the workers feel about that.
It’s almost laughable that big business would complain about regulation when the lack of it led to the mortgage mess and the Gulf oil spill. Meanwhile those who profited from the stimulus program dodge their taxes.
If you believe America pays the highest taxes in the world you’ve been watching too much Fox News. We’re paying the lowest taxes (including property, income, and sales) since 1954. Here in Minnesota foreigners come to the Mall of America to buy clothes especially because our sales taxes are so low. Methinks corporate refusal to open their purse strings has more to do with making sure Obama is a one-term president than any of the above, and if that’s true it’s pretty close to treason.
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