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<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:36.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">10</span><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">
Filthy-Rich, Tax-Dodging Hypocrites Pushing Disastrous Austerity on America<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:Georgia;
mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Georgia;
mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">The Fix the Debt coalition is using the so-called
“fiscal cliff” to push the same old corporate agenda of more tax breaks while
shifting the burden on to the rest of us.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Georgia;
mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">October 26, 2012</span></i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">
| <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Brace yourself for one of the most aggressive
corporate lobbying campaigns of all time. And one of the most hypocritical.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">“<a href="http://www.fixthedebt.org/"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Fix the Debt </span></a>”
is a coalition of more than 80 CEOs who claim they know best how to deal with
our nation’s fiscal challenges. The group boasts a <a href="http://www.fixthedebt.org/uploads/files/CEO-Talking-Points-10.2.12.doc"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">$60 million </span></a>budget
just for the initial phase of a massive media and lobbying campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">The irony is that CEOs in the coalition’s
leadership have been major contributors to the national debt they now claim to
know how to fix. These are guys who’ve mastered every tax-dodging trick in the book.
And now that they’ve boosted their corporate profits by draining the public
treasury, how do they propose we put our fiscal house back in order? By
squeezing programs for the poor and elderly, including Social Security,
Medicare, and Medicaid.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Fix the Debt claims their agenda is not just about
spending cuts. But when it comes to their tax proposals, they use the slippery
term “pro-growth reform” to push for cuts in deductions that are likely to
include credits for working families and — you guessed it — more corporate tax
breaks. Chief among these is a proposal to switch to a <a href="http://www.fixthedebt.org/.../The-Debt-Challenge-Presentation.pptx"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">territorial
system </span></a>under which corporate foreign earnings would be permanently
exempted (instead of being taxed when they are returned to America).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">This idea, also supported by the Bowles-Simpson
deficit commission, would make it even more profitable for big corporations to
use accounting tricks to disguise U.S. profits as income earned in tax havens.
Citizens for Tax Justice <a href="http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2012/10/tax_policy_invades_the_foreign.php"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">estimates</span></a>
that such tax haven abuse will cost the Treasury more than $1 trillion over the
next decade.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">So who are the CEOs who are telling the rest of us
to be responsible and tighten our belts after they’ve spent decades stiffing
the U.S. Treasury? Of the 80 members of Fix the Debt’s CEO Fiscal Leadership
Council, here are 10 that stand out as the biggest hypocrites:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">1. Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Perhaps no tax-dodging U.S. corporation has done
more to drain the U.S. Treasury than General Electric. Over the last 10 years
GE reported more than $80 billion in U.S. pre-tax profits and yet paid a
federal corporate income tax rate of <a href="http://ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2012/02/press_release_general_electric.php"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">just 2.3% </span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">One of GE’s favorite tricks is the “Active
Financing Exception.” U.S. corporations are supposed to pay U.S. taxes on interest
income earned anywhere in the world. But GE enjoys this special exception for
companies that have “captive” foreign finance subsidiaries, such as their
credit card arm. The measure was repealed as part of fair taxation reforms in
1986, but GE led a successful lobbying effort to bring it back in 1997.
Although the exception was supposed to be temporary, Congress has renewed it
six times. And, despite all the public hand-wringing over the deficit,
lawmakers are seriously considering extending this and other corporate
loopholes before the end of the year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">2. Jim McNerney, Boeing</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Last year, Boeing was one of 25 major U.S. firms
that paid their CEO more than they paid Uncle Sam in corporate income taxes,
according to an <a href="http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2012"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Institute for
Policy Studies report </span></a>. The aerospace giant enjoyed a $605 million
tax refund in 2011, despite reporting more than $5 billion in U.S. pre-tax
profits. CEO Jim McNerney made $18.4 million in personal compensation. In fact,
Boeing is a <a href="http://www.ctj.org/pdf/boeing2012.pdf"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">serial tax
dodger </span></a>, having paid federal corporate income taxes in only two of
the last 10 years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial">One of the ways Boeing avoids paying taxes is by taking advantage of the
Research and Experimentation Tax Credit, which saved the $137 million last year
alone. Government investment in basic research is not a bad idea, but current
R&D credits are structured in a way that primarily benefits large,
well-resourced high-tech firms like Boeing that would probably do the research
anyway. CEO McNerney also chairs the Business Roundtable, which aggressively
lobbies for more corporate tax breaks.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">3. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Few corporations have been as dependent on U.S.
taxpayers for their very existence as Goldman Sachs. The 2008 bailout of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/business/economy/24goldman.html?_r=0"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">American
International Group </span></a>and the steady stream of low- and non-interest
loans for the financial sector have kept the company alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">CEO Blankfein says he’d accept a small increase in
individual taxes for the wealthy in exchange for a comprehensive budget deal.
But his corporate tax proposals would wipe out the revenue gains from rolling
back the Bush tax cuts for top earners. Blankfein is a big supporter of the
territorial tax system explained above. This is hardly a surprise, since
Goldman Sachs already operates <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000095012311020067/y88213exv21w1.htm"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">37 subsidiaries
in tax havens </span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Blankfein has also used his position at the helm of
the Financial Services Forum, a club for the CEOs of 20 top banks, to <a href="http://businessroundtable.org/news-center/joint-association-letter-to-secretary-geithner-on-continuing-oppositio/"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">oppose financial
transaction taxes </span></a>-- small levies on trades of stock, derivatives,
and other financial instruments. Goldman Sachs has made as much as <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/ex-goldman-programmer-sentenced-to-8-years-for-theft-of-trading-code/"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">$300 million </span></a>per
year from the volatile high-frequency trading strategies that would be hardest
hit by such a transaction tax. In early October, <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c5a49c1c-1219-11e2-bbfd-00144feabdc0.html"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">11 European
governments </span></a>announced a plan to implement such taxes, with expected
revenues in the neighborhood of $ <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/23/eu-tax-idUSB5E8KQ02D20121023"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">75 billion per
year </span></a>. But Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms have blocked
U.S. progress on this major revenue-raiser.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">4. Brian T. Moynihan, Bank of America</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">After a decade of risky and reckless mortgage
lending, Bank of America survived the 2008 financial crash with the help of a <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/bank-of-america-to-repay-45-billion-from-tarp/"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">$45 billion
bailout. </span></a>Today, Bank of America sits on $128 billion in cash — $18
billion of it is overseas —and much of that is sitting in the company’s <a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/290/284522.pdf"><span style="color:#747C2C;
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">115 tax haven subsidiaries </span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Last year, after investors saw their stock price
decline 58 percent and 30,000 Bank of America employees lost their jobs to
layoffs, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/28/business/la-fi-mo-bank-of-america-moynihan-pay-20120328"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">CEO Brian
Moynihan </span></a>saw his compensation quadruple to more than $8 million. His
predecessor, Ken Lewis, raked in more than $50 million in the two
years before the housing bubble that Bank of America had help inflate
burst in 2008.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">5. David Cote, Honeywell Corporation</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Over the last three years, Honeywell received more
than $2.7 billion in federal defense contracts and reported more than $2.5
billion in U.S. pre-tax profits. And yet thanks to corporate deductions, tax
subsidies, and loopholes, Honeywell has claimed $377 million in federal tax
refunds during this period.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Honeywell CEO David Cote has been a fixture at
Congressional hearings calling for a territorial tax system for corporations.
He is also Vice-Chair of the Business Roundtable, a club for big business CEOs
that has called for an extension of all the Bush tax cuts, including those for
millionaires and billionaires, as well as the tax cuts on unearned income from
capital gains and dividends. These combined measures would add $1.5 trillion to
the debt over the next ten years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">6. Randall Stephenson, AT&T</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">AT&T is another firm that paid its CEO more
last year than they paid in federal corporate income taxes. CEO Randall
Stephenson made <a href="http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2012"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">$18.7 million </span></a>,
while the firm enjoyed a $420 million refund from Uncle Sam.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">AT&T is a major beneficiary of “accelerated
depreciation” rules that allow companies to turbo-charge tax deductions in the
early years of the life of an asset. A 2009 accelerated depreciation rule saved
the company $5.2 billion on their 2011 taxes, according to the firm’s 10-K
report. Although touted as a way to jumpstart spending in a downturn, such tax
breaks often result in taxpayers bearing a substantial portion of the cost of
investments firms would’ve made anyway <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">7. Arne Sorenson, Marriott International</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice prosecuted
Marriott International for using an illegal tax shelter swindle dubbed “ <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/08/opinion/canellos-kleinbard-romney-taxes/index.html"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Son of Boss </span></a>.”
The scam involved setting up a series of complex paper transactions between
company subsidiaries to create $70 million in fake losses that could be offset
against Marriott’s real profits. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a
long-time friend of the Marriott family and named after Marriott’s patriarch J.
Willard Marriott, was the head of the hotel giant’s audit committee in 1994 at
the time the board first approved the Son of Boss transaction. According to <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/romney-as-auditing-chairman-saw-marriott-son-of-boss-tax-shelter-defy-irs.html"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Bloomberg</span></a>,
Marriott has also shifted profits to a Luxembourg shell company and avoided
hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes through one federal tax credit for
so-called synthetic fuel that Senator John McCain dubbed an “expensive hoax.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">8. Alexander Cutler, Eaton Corporation</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Less than two years after accepting <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/06/eaton_breaks_ground_for_170_mi.html"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">$90 million </span></a>in
taxpayer-financed subsidies to locate a new world headquarters in the suburbs
of Cleveland, Eaton Corporation announced that it would be moving its
headquarters and reincorporating as an Irish company. The move is part of a
merger deal with Cooper Industries, another Fix the Debt coalition member. The
two companies boast that Eaton’s departure after 100 years in Cleveland will
cut their tax bill by <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-21/eaton-expects-160-million-tax-savings-from-ireland-move.html"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">$160 million </span></a>.
Meanwhile, Eaton is fighting a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-21/eaton-expects-160-million-tax-savings-from-ireland-move.html"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">$75 million bill
</span></a>from the IRS for back taxes and penalties related to alleged
violations of transfer pricing agreements.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">9. Lowell McAdam, Verizon</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Verizon is one of 30 companies identified by <a href="http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/CorporateTaxDodgersReport.pdf"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Citizens for Tax
Justice </span></a>as having paid “less than nothing” in federal income taxes
over the entire 2008-10 period. Despite earning $32.5 billion in profits during
these three years, the firm got so much in tax subsidies that they wound up
with a net tax refund of $951 million. That works out to a tax rate of negative
2.9%. In effect, every Verizon phone customer paid more in federal telephone
excise taxes than Verizon paid in federal income taxes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">10. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">A recent <a href="http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/hearings/offshore-profit-shifting-and-the-us-tax-code"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Senate
investigation </span></a>exposed how Microsoft has used Olympic class
accounting acrobatics to avoid paying taxes. Specifically, the Senate Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigations charged that the software giant had devised a
complicated transfer pricing agreement with a subsidiary in Puerto Rico to
lower its tax bill on goods sold in the U.S. market by as much as $4.5 billion
from 2009 to 2011. The investigation also accused Microsoft of avoiding
billions in U.S. corporate income taxes by shifting royalty revenue to low-tax
jurisdictions. Subcommittee Chair Carl Levin described Microsoft’s strategies
as “tax alchemy, featuring structures and transactions that require a
suspension of disbelief to be accepted.” Such alchemy, while not illegal, is a
major contributor to the national debt.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Sanders to CEOs: Look in the Mirror</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">When Fix the Debt launched their 80 CEO-strong
coalition on October 25, <a href="http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9D15C4D6-189A-41D6-848B-F07B523C2EEE"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Senator Bernie
Sanders </span></a>responded by stating, “Before telling us why we should cut
Social Security, Medicare and other vitally important programs, these CEOs
might want to take a hard look at their responsibility for causing the deficit
and this terrible recession.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">Instead, the Fix the Debt coalition members are
portraying themselves as the honorable ones who are brave enough to push the
tough austerity medicine that is the only remedy for our fiscal ills. Nonsense.
We are the richest nation in the history of the world. Our problem is that too
much of our wealth is going into the coffers of rich individuals and
corporations and to pay for misguided wars.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">There are numerous budget plans by Senator Sanders,
the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and others that would get us on the right
track. At the <a href="http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/america_is_not_broke"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Institute for
Policy Studies </span></a>, we’ve identified a dozen policies that would
collectively raise trillions of dollars to in ways that would not only address
the fiscal challenge but help make our economy more equitable, green, and
secure. The report also points out that until we recover from the current
unemployment crisis, we should not be contemplating any spending cuts that
could deepen the crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">The Fix the Debt coalition is using the so-called
“fiscal cliff” as an opportunity to push the same old corporate agenda of more
tax breaks while shifting the burden on to the middle class and the poor. If
America’s CEOs really want to Fix the Debt, they should first commit to
eliminating the loopholes that have allowed them to avoid paying their fair
share of the cost of government, including investments necessary to keep our
families and our communities strong and secure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Georgia;
mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">Sarah Anderson is Global Economy Project Director
and Scott Klinger is an Associate Fellow of the <a href="http://www.ips-dc.org/"><span style="color:#747C2C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Institute for
Policy Studies </span></a>. </span></i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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