Re: [Boston-editorial] Op-Ed Submission: America ¹ s Corporate Benedict Arnolds

Thu Jun 16 08:44:10 PDT 2005

I agree with Sharpie that this is the sort of information that would be 
of interest to everyone, not just a few specialists. Your comments 
didn't sound like a block, Pete, but I wanted to check in before 
featuring it. It's also good, as you've pointed out in the past, Pete, 
to have new feature articles regularly. -- Matt

On Jun 16, 2005, at 10:24 AM, sharpie at riseup.net wrote:

> Hey folks, i have to say i think this is a solid article and the 
> Benedict
> Arnold reference is a nice way of making it sort of more relevant in a 
> fun
> silly way to Boston "the cradle of the american revolution"
>
> if we can't be silly, what can we be? and what is "our thing" anyway?
>
> also, I feel like this is solidly written, and folks have been 
> interested
> in  featuring, to my opinion, much less solid pieces in the past.
>
> in other news, can we take down red herring's comments to this article:
>
> http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/38616/index.php
>
> they're really pointless/inflammatory. especially the last one. "all 
> power
> to the soviets"? i mean come on... that's so 1988.
>
> Also, can we push the NSTAR article off the frontpage, its totally
> misleading due to its title, since the strike has been over for weeks.
>
> (i make these requests because i dont have an editorial password 
> yet...)
>
> peace
> sharpie
>
>> I think we should put it on the local newswire, but
>> not feature it.  It's not really our thing so much,
>> it's more for a specialized audience.
>>
>>
>> -Pete
>>
>>
>> --- Matthew Williams <mw21 at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>>> So, anyway, do we want to feature this? I think it's
>>> got some good
>>> information, but I also think the way it's
>>> framed--the whole traitor,
>>> Benedict Arnold thing--is kind of silly, which makes
>>> me hesitate. --
>>> Matt
>>>
>>> On Jun 13, 2005, at 5:51 PM, Press Room at UFE
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Op-Ed Submission from United for a Fair Economy
>>> (617-423-2148 x119)
>>>>
>>>> America's Corporate Benedict Arnolds
>>>>
>>>> “That’s un-American” is the cry heard whenever the
>>> unwritten code of
>>>> American values is breached, Compassion, fairness
>>> and equal
>>>> opportunity are
>>>> hallmarks, and although you might not be able to
>>> recite chapter and
>>>> verse of
>>>> the code, you know when it is broken.
>>>>
>>>> On this the 204th anniversary of the death of
>>> Benedict Arnold, one of
>>>> America’s most famous traitors, it’s time to
>>> consider whether some of
>>>> America’s largest corporations that pay little or
>>> no federal taxes,
>>>> have
>>>> indeed become traitors.
>>>>
>>>> Large corporations are in full retreat from paying
>>> their fair share of
>>>> taxes. In 2003, corporations paid just 7% of the
>>> cost of the US
>>>> government,
>>>> according to a study by Citizens for Tax Justice.
>>>>
>>>> It wasn’t always this way. At the end of the
>>> Second World War, a time
>>>> when
>>>> paying taxes was viewed as a patriotic duty,
>>> corporations paid half
>>>> the cost
>>>> of the federal government. Even as recently as the
>>> 1970s, corporate
>>>> taxes
>>>> accounted for 20% of federal treasury receipts.
>>>>
>>>> This dramatic change has shifted the cost of
>>> paying for government to
>>>> smaller businesses and individual taxpayers, while
>>> at the same time
>>>> boosting
>>>> corporate profits and their executive’s pay.
>>>>
>>>> In 2003, ten companies each reported more than $1
>>> billion in profits to
>>>> their shareholders, yet paid no federal corporate
>>> income tax.
>>>> Collectively,
>>>> these firms that have claimed the only way they
>>> can remain competitive
>>>> is
>>>> through tax breaks, earned $30 billion in profits
>>> and paid their CEOs
>>>> $126
>>>> million in 2003.  The average pay of the CEOs of
>>> the corporate Benedict
>>>> Arnolds was $12.6 million, 51% higher than the pay
>>> of the average
>>>> large-company CEO as reported by Business Week.
>>>>
>>>> Who are these resurrected Benedict Arnolds? A new
>>> report published by
>>>> United
>>>> for a Fair Economy entitled Corporate Traitors:
>>> The Decline of
>>>> Corporate
>>>> Taxes and the Subsequent Rise of CEO Pay
>>>>
>>>
>> (http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2005/corporatetraitors.pdf)
>>> bestows
>>>> awards
>>>> on some of these tax avoiders.
>>>>
>>>> Boeing, the nation’s second largest defense
>>> contractor, is honored
>>>> with the
>>>> “Taxes are the Real Enemy” Benedict Arnold award.
>>> Boeing received the
>>>> largest federal tax refund in 2003. So large was
>>> Boeing’s $1.7 billion
>>>> tax
>>>> refund that it dwarfed the company’s $1 billion in
>>> reported earnings,
>>>> giving
>>>> the company an effective tax rate of -159%
>>> according to Citizens for
>>>> Tax
>>>> Justice.
>>>>
>>>> Viagra maker Pfizer took home the “Taxpaying
>>> Dysfunction (TD)” award.
>>>> Despite $14 billion in profits between 2001 and
>>> 2003, Pfizer couldn’t
>>>> get
>>>> excited enough about paying taxes to perform –
>>> sending just $1.2
>>>> billion to
>>>> the federal treasury, a miserly effective tax rate
>>> of just 8.2%. In
>>>> contrast, Pfizer’s industry competitor Merck paid
>>> 32.5% of its $12.7
>>>> billion
>>>> in three-year profits in federal taxes.
>>>>
>>>> Pfizer saw no need to be Scrooge-like when it came
>>> to paying its CEO
>>>> Hank
>>>> McKinnell, however, who walked away with $21.4
>>> million in 2004, more
>>>> than
>>>> three times what Merck paid its CEO.
>>>>
>>>> These disparities in tax rates adversely affect
>>> the competitive playing
>>>> field not only between giant companies like Pfizer
>>> and Merck, but to
>>>> an even
>>>> greater degree between large companies and small
>>> businesses. While the
>>>> average large company today pays only 18% of its
>>> income in federal
>>>> taxes,
>>>> many small businesses owners pay 34%.
>>>>
>>>> Two centuries after Benedict Arnold used his power
>>> and influence to
>>>> gain a
>>>> plum assignment as commander of West Point, and
>>> then used that
>>>> position to
>>>> surrender this important fort to the British, we
>>> are witness to other
>>>> powerful players using their privilege and
>>> standing to rewrite the
>>>> nation’s
>>>> tax laws for their own gain.
>>>>
>>>> Corporate tax and accounting departments have
>>> morphed from backwater
>>>> cost
>>>> centers to sexy profit drivers. Investments in
>>> research and
>>>> development have
>>>> shrunk as investments in aggressive lobbying and
>>> accounting have
>>>> blossomed.
>>>> These corporate Benedict Arnolds, like their
>>> namesakes, are
>>>> jeopardizing the
>>>> nation’s security.
>>>>
>>>> The American public, angered by Arnold’s betrayal,
>>> went on to fight and
>>>> reclaim West Point from the British. Today the
>>> fight is about
>>>> restoring the
>>>> fairness of the tax system by assuring that
>>> corporations pay their fair
>>>> share to maintain the society upon which their
>>> vast wealth depends.
>>>>
>>>> The fight has many fronts
>>>> -Congress should reform and simplify the corporate
>>> tax code, lowering
>>>> the
>>>> rate, eliminating the myriad of tax breaks and
>>> implementing
>>>> progressive tax
>>>> principles that would tax Big Business at higher
>>> rates than small
>>>> family
>>>> businesses, reversing the current reality.
>>>> -The corporate alternative minimum tax,
>>> eviscerated by the Clinton
>>>> Administration, needs to be restored, so that all
>>> profitable companies
>>>> pay
>>>> taxes.
>>>> -We need to withdraw from tax treaties with many
>>> of the 90 tax haven
>>>> nations
>>>> who aid and abet corporate tax avoiders.
>>>>
>>>> Those who continue down Benedict Arnold’s path
>>> might, like the infamous
>>>> traitor, consider taking themselves to another
>>> country. Their current
>>>> behavior is un-American and unacceptable.
>>>>
>>>> Scott Klinger is the corporate accountability
>>> coordinator at United
>>>> for a
>>>> Fair Economy (http://www.faireconomy.org) and
>>> author of the report:
>>>> “Corporate Traitors: The Decline of Corporate
>>> Taxation and Subsequent
>>>> Rise
>>>> in CEO Pay.”
>>>>
>>>
>> (http:///www.faireconomy.otg/press/2005/corporatetraitors.pdf)
>>>> Scott Klinger may be emailed at
>>> sklinger at faireconomy.org.
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
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