Tuesday, April 16, 2019

TRUMPERNOMICS FOR THE RICH - FEDS SAY 12 MILLION AMERICANS REMAIN SIDELINED AND OUT OF WORKFORCE - DEMOCRATS SAY 12 MILLION ILLEGALS SHOULD GET AMNESTY AND MORE WELFARE.... They already get our jobs!

TRUMP’S CRAP ON BORDERS AND HIS PRETEND WALL IS ONLY ONE MORE TRUMP HOAX!
Only a complete fool would believe that Trump is any more for American Legal workers than the Democrat Party for Billionaires and Banksters!
“Trump Administration Betrays Low-Skilled American Workers.”
The latest ad from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) asks Trump to reject the mass illegal and legal immigration policies supported by Wall Street, corporate executives, and most specifically, the GOP mega-donor Koch brothers.
Efforts by the big business lobby, Chamber of Commerce, Koch brothers, and George W. Bush Center include increasing employment-based legal immigration that would likely crush the historic wage gains that Trump has delivered for America’s blue collar and working class citizens.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Silicon Valley investors are uniting with the Koch network’s consumer and industrial investors to demand a huge DACA amnesty

A handful of Republican and Democrat lawmakers are continuing to tout a plan that gives amnesty to nearly a million illegal aliens in exchange for some amount of funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.


THE DEATH OF THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS

THE ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN WORKER BY PHONY POPULIST SWAMP KEEPER TRUMP



Companies say they often pay good wages to their imported H-2B workers, often around $15 per hour. But that price is below the wages sought by Americans for the seasonal work which leaves them jobless in the off-season. The lower wages paid to H-2Bs also allows companies to pay lower wages to their American supervisors. NEIL MUNRO

There Is No ‘Labor Shortage’

Washington, D.C. (April 17, 2019) - A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies finds no empirical evidence of a "labor shortage" whereby employers need immigration  to fill jobs because they are unable to find American workers.

Jason Richwine, an independent policy analyst and the author of the report, said, "When employers tell us that they cannot find workers, what they really mean is that they cannot find workers willing to work for the low wage they'd like to pay. The percentage of working-age Americans not in the labor force remains significantly below the level from the year 2000, and employers should try to bring those Americans back first before they look to immigration."

View the full report: https://cis.org/Report/There-No-Labor-Shortage

Key findings in the report:
  • Shortages should not occur in a free market
  • Tight labor markets benefit marginalized groups
  • Wages have been stagnant over the long term
  • Labor force participation is down over the long term
  • Domestic industries should hire Americans
  • Natives participate in all major occupations
  • Plenty of STEM workers are available
  • Gains to the economy are not the same as gains to natives
  • Immigration is not an efficient solution to population aging

Immigration is fundamentally about trade-offs. Unfortunately, advocates have seized on the idea of a "labor shortage" in order to deny those trade-offs, arguing instead that immigration is necessary to fill jobs that cannot be filled by natives. Neither economic theory nor empirical evidence supports the notion of a "labor shortage". It's time to retire this talking point.




Feds: 12M Americans Remain Sidelined, Out of the Workforce



Unemployed Americans
JOHN BINDER
326
3:22

More than 12 million Americans have remain sidelined from the U.S. workforce despite their wanting full-time employment, federal data suggests.

Last month, there were more than 12 million Americans who were either unemployed, forced to work part-time jobs, out of the workforce but wanted jobs, or who were unemployed because they were discouraged by their job prospects.
Overall, about 6.2 million Americans were unemployed, about 13 percent of whom were teenagers and 6.7 percent of whom were black Americans. The unemployment rate for black Americans is more than double the unemployment rate of Asian Americans.
Additionally, about 4.5 million Americans are working part-time jobs despite wanting full-time jobs. These are mostly poor, working and lower-middle class Americans who say the job market has kept them in part-time work though they prefer being a full-time employee.
There are also about 1.4 million Americans who are entirely out of the workforce and thus not counted in the unemployment rate. These are working-age residents who have looked for a job over the last 12 months. Among those out of the workforce are 412,000 Americans who are discouraged by the job market and say they do not believe there are any jobs for them in the current economy.
While millions remain on the sidelines of the workforce, Democrats, some Republicans, and the big business lobby have suggested the U.S. bring more foreign workers to take blue collar and many white collar American jobs. Already, about 1.5 million illegal and legal immigrants are admitted to the country every year, at the detriment of U.S. wages.
Every one percent increase in the immigrant composition of American workers’ occupations reduces their weekly wages by about 0.5 percent, researcher Steven Camarotta has found. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by perhaps 8.5 percent because of current legal immigration levels.
In a state like Florida, where immigrants make up about 25.4 percent of the labor force, American workers have their weekly wages reduced by about 12.5 percent. In California, where immigrants make up 34 percent of the labor force, American workers’ weekly wages are reduced by potentially 17 percent.
Likewise, every one percent increase in the immigrant composition of low-skilled U.S. occupations reduces wages by about 0.8 percent. Should 15 percent of low-skilled jobs be held by foreign-born workers, it would reduce the wages of native-born American workers by perhaps 12 percent.
Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), David Perdue (R-GA), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), on the other hand, have reintroduced the RAISE Act which would reduce legal immigration levels to about 500,000 admissions a year and end the process known as “chain migration,” where newly naturalized citizens are able to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S.
The plan would immediately tighten the labor market, advocates say, and thus boost wages and open job opportunities for America’s working and middle class that have struggled to re-enter the workforce.
The Washington, DC-imposed mass legal immigration policy is a boon to corporate executives, Wall Street, big business, and multinational conglomerates, as America’s working and middle class have their wealth redistributed to the country’s top earners through wage stagnation and increased public costs.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

ANN COULTER



TRUMP’S PARASITIC FAMILY

Jared’s BFF, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Muhammad bin Zayed (MBZ), refer to Jared as “the clown prince.” Bone-cutter MBS assured those around him that he had Jared “in my pocket.” 
*
Following meetings at the White House and also with the Kushners over their 666 Fifth Avenue property, former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim reported back to the emir that “the people atop the new administration were heavily motivated by personal financial interest.” 
*

“Truthfully, It Is Tough To Ignore Some Of The Gross Immoral Behavior By The President” WASHINGTON POST


"At the same time, the tax cuts for big business are fueling the federal deficit, which will be used by both Democratic and Republican politicians to call for further cuts in social spending. The February monthly federal deficit hit an all-time high of $234 billion this year, as a result of a 20 percent drop in corporate tax revenue. The deficit for the first half of 2019 is projected at $961 billion, and the deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30 is expected to reach $1.1 trillion, as bad as the deficits posted in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crash."

US Tax Day 2019: Sixty giant corporations pay zero income tax

Dozens of giant US corporations, including 60 of the Fortune 500, used deductions, credits and other tax loopholes to avoid paying any federal income tax for 2018, according to an analysis issued by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The report was published April 11, just in time for the April 15 deadline for most American working people to file their tax returns.
The 60 companies in the Fortune 500 who paid no federal income tax had net incomes just from US operations of nearly $80 billion ($79,025,000,000, to be exact). They include such household names as Amazon, Chevron, Deere, Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Goodyear, Halliburton, Honeywell, IBM, Eli Lilly, Netflix, Occidental Petroleum, Prudential Financial and US Steel.
Meanwhile, millions of moderate-income families are finding that their income taxes have either increased or their expected tax refunds have evaporated because of restrictions on the itemization of tax deductions, the imposition of a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions and a cut in the mortgage interest deduction.
Nearly all of the 60 companies that paid no taxes qualified to receive a refund from the US Treasury, although most will not collect a check, instead using the credit to offset future taxes. But whatever the bookkeeping process, American taxpayers are effectively paying money to them, despite their vast profits. The biggest refunds include those going to Prudential, $346 million (added to its $1.44 billion in profits); Duke Energy, a whopping $647 million (added to $3.02 billion in profits); and Deere, $268 million (added to $2.15 billion in profits).
Among the report’s most outrageous findings:
Amazon more than zeroed-out its tax bill on $10.8 billion in profits, making use of accelerated depreciation deductions on equipment as well as favorable tax treatment of stock-based compensation for executives like CEO Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest man in the world. The stock compensation deduction alone was worth $1 billion. Amazon will actually show a credit of $129 million from the US Treasury, not paying one cent in federal income taxes.
IBM is another corporate giant that has gamed the tax system by shifting earnings to its foreign operations to escape US taxation. The company reported worldwide profits of $8.7 billion, but only $500 million in the United States. It will reap a $342 million credit from the Treasury.
Delta Airlines accumulated $17.1 billion in federal pre-tax net losses as of 2010, partly as a consequence of a protracted crisis of the airline industry, partly as a result of the 2008 Wall Street crash. It has used these losses as well as the accelerated depreciation credit for purchase of new planes to “dramatically reduce their tax rates,” according to the ITEP report, receiving a credit of $187 million in 2018 despite net profits of more than $5 billion. According to Delta’s chief financial officer, the actual tax rate the company expects to pay going forward is between 10 and 13 percent, far below what a typical Delta worker pays on his or her income.
EOG Resources, a renamed remnant of Enron, perpetrator of the biggest corporate fraud in American history, can collect $304 million from US taxpayers on top of $4.07 billion in profits.
For one company, the federal tax refund would actually exceed net profits. Gannett made a $7 million profit, while showing an additional $11 million credit from the Treasury, giving the newspaper publishing giant an effective tax rate of negative 164 percent.
IBM’s tax rate was a negative 68 percent, while software maker Activision Blizzard and construction company AECOM Technology both posted effective tax rates of negative 51 percent.
Sixteen of the 60 companies made more than a billion dollars in net income on their US operations, to say nothing of foreign subsidiaries. Oil and gas producers and utilities comprised more than one-third of the total, led by Chevron and Occidental among the oil companies, and DTE Energy, American Electric Power, Duke Energy and Dominion Resources among the utilities.
The 60 companies profited enormously because the Trump tax cut bill cut the basic rate for corporations from 35 percent to 21 percent, while not eliminating the loopholes they had previously used to keep their taxes low. They had the best of both worlds, paying lower rates while still enjoying loopholes.
Overall, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, an arm of Congress, the cut in the corporate tax rate alone will pump $1.35 trillion into the pockets of the corporations over the next 10 years. For this year alone, corporate taxes have been cut by 31 percent.
For the 60 companies in the ITEP report, “Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes, as the new 21 percent corporate tax rate requires, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion, blowing a $20.7 billion hole in the federal budget last year.”
This figure by itself is an irrefutable answer to all the bogus claims—made to workers in every part of the United States—that there is “no money” to pay for needed social programs, for wage and benefit increases, or to hire additional workers to reduce overwork and understaffing. The $20.7 billion would pay for a $7,000 bonus to every public school teacher in America.
The bonanza that these 60 corporations are enjoying is three times the amount that Trump proposes to cut from the budget of the Department of Education. It is 10 times the total amount budgeted for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which provides services for more than 2 million Native Americans. It is nearly 20 times the budget of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which conducts workplace safety inspections.
The ITEP report, issued by a group with close ties to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal Washington think tank, warns of the explosive political consequences of the corporate plundering of the Treasury. “The specter of big corporations avoiding all income taxes on billions in profits sends a strong and corrosive signal to Americans: that the tax system is stacked against them, in favor of corporations and the wealthiest Americans,” the report says.
At the same time, the tax cuts for big business are fueling the federal deficit, which will be used by both Democratic and Republican politicians to call for further cuts in social spending. The February monthly federal deficit hit an all-time high of $234 billion this year, as a result of a 20 percent drop in corporate tax revenue. The deficit for the first half of 2019 is projected at $961 billion, and the deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30 is expected to reach $1.1 trillion, as bad as the deficits posted in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crash.



The number of U.S. companies paying zero federal taxes DOUBLED when Trump's tax plan took effect in 2018

·         60 large companies managed to escape 2018 taxes under Trump's new plan 
·         Many of those corporations actually received tax rebates totaling $4.3 billion
·         The businesses include: Amazon, Netflix, Chevron, Delta Airlines, JetBlue Airways, IBM, General Motors, Goodyear, Eli Lilly and United States Steel
·         The result is a $20.7 billion budget hole that is adding to America's federal debt
President Donald Trump's tax policy doubled the number of highly profitable companies that were able to avoid paying any federal taxes in 2018, according to a new report.
Amazon, Netflix, Chevron, Delta Airlines, IBM, General Motors and Eli Lilly were among those who managed to escape taxes for last year, according to the study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
'Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes, as the new 21 percent corporate tax rate requires, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion, blowing a $20.7 billion hole in the federal budget last year,' the report says. 
The Washington, D.C. think tank analyzed America's 560 largest publicly held companies, finding that 60 of them paid nothing in taxes for last year – double the average of roughly 30 companies that got away scot-free each year from 2008-2015.
Republicans in Congress pushed through the tax law signed by Trump in 2017, and its policies favoring the richest Americans and most valuable U.S. companies took effect in 2018.



Joe Scarborough: Mayor Pete Buttigieg as Exciting as Ronald Reagan


*
"We live in a moment that compels us each to act,” he said. “The forces changing our country are tectonic — forces that help to explain what made this current presidency even possible. That's why this time it's not just about winning an election — it's about winning an era."
PETE  BUTTIGIEG
*
At just 37, he is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He is a military veteran and a deeply religious gay man who is married but also enjoys sandwiches from (anti-same-sex marriage) Chick-fil-A. He is a Harvard-educated Rhodes scholar who speaks eight languages. He is the first ever millennial candidate for president and, so far, the only Democratic hopeful to appear on the "Fox News Sunday" show.
*
The fact that he was born and bred in the American Rust Belt is possibly his biggest asset.

"Scripture tells us to look after the least among us, that it also counsels humility and teaches us about what's bigger than ourselves," said Buttigieg, a devout Episcopalian. "It points the way toward an inclusive and unselfish politics that I strive to practice, whether I'm talking about my faith on the stump or not."

CONGRESS GOES AFTER TRUMP'S SHADY FINANCES

PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES DONALD TRUMP: Pathological liar, swindler, con man, huckster, golfing cheat, charity foundation fraudster, tax evader, adulterer, porn whore chaser and servant of the Saudis dictators
THE TRUMP FAMILY FOUNDATION SLUSH FUND…. Will they see jail?
VISUALIZE REVOLUTION!.... We know where they live!
“Underwood is a Democrat and is seeking millions of dollars in penalties. She wants Trump and his eldest children barred from running other charities.”

Congress Subpoenas Deutsche Bank As Part Of Democrats' Probe Of Trump Finances

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713861150/congress-subpoenas-deutsche-bank-as-part-of-democrats-probe-of-trump-finances?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20190416&utm_campaign=news&utm_term=nprnews



A branch of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. The company has received subpoenas from two U.S. House committees about its business dealings with President Trump.
Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
Two House committees have issued subpoenas for information from Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions as part an ongoing investigations into President Trump's finances.
The move is the latest sign that Democrats will continue to seek information on potential criminal activity by Trump and his business associates well after the expected release Thursday of the redacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller about Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The subpoenas were issued as part of a joint investigation led by the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees into foreign influence on the U.S. political process.
Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters, D-Calif., says the use of the financial system for potentially illicit purposes is a serious matter and the investigation is necessary under the committee's oversight authority.
Waters said the committee plans to investigate "as thoroughly as possible pursuant to its oversight authority and will follow the facts wherever they may lead us," Waters said.














The subpoenas are part of a broader effort by Democrats to establish new information about Trump's financial dealings. A separate probe is underway in the House Ways and Means Committee where Democrats are demanding that the Treasury Department turn over 10 years of Trump's tax returns.
Treasury lawyers have so far refused to comply and many in Trump's inner circle have publicly questioned the legitimacy of that request.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., sent a letter to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig on Saturday refuting those questions and demanding that the tax returns be released by April 23.


Joe Scarborough: Mayor Pete Buttigieg as Exciting as Ronald Reagan



"We live in a moment that compels us each to act,” he said. “The forces changing our country are tectonic — forces that help to explain what made this current presidency even possible. That's why this time it's not just about winning an election — it's about winning an era."
PETE  BUTTIGIEG

At just 37, he is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He is a military veteran and a deeply religious gay man who is married but also enjoys sandwiches from (anti-same-sex marriage) Chick-fil-A. He is a Harvard-educated Rhodes scholar who speaks eight languages. He is the first ever millennial candidate for president and, so far, the only Democratic hopeful to appear on the "Fox News Sunday" show.
The fact that he was born and bred in the American Rust Belt is possibly his biggest asset.
"Scripture tells us to look after the least among us, that it also counsels humility and teaches us about what's bigger than ourselves," said Buttigieg, a devout Episcopalian. "It points the way toward an inclusive and unselfish politics that I strive to practice, whether I'm talking about my faith on the stump or not."





Brooks: Trump Represents a ‘Moral and Spiritual Crisis’ in America



PAM KEY
107
1:16

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” New York Times columnist David Brooks argued President Donald Trump “grows out of a moral and spiritual crisis” in America.
Brooks said, “Just think about the interview we just saw with Rachel Maddow and Pete Buttigieg. There’s a guy with fundamental decency. I met him like months ago before I knew he was running for president, I was seated next to him at a dinner, and there was just a basic humility and deference. And you look at Donald Trump, and you look at a man who is about ego, who is about—worships career success, financial success. A man who I think somewhere was not loved and shelled himself off and is incapable of receiving or giving love.”
He added, “I think we should be prepared for how much the country will want to take a reset after the Trump presidency or even when they make the decision about 2020. They are going to want not only policy changes, a lot of people, but a moral cleansing. And to me, Trump grows out of a moral and spiritual crisis in the country, and the answer is a moral and spiritual response.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN





How Pete Buttigieg Could Hurt Trump in the Rust Belt

https://townhall.com/columnists/salenazito/2019/04/09/how-pete-buttigieg-could-hurt-trump-in-the-rust-belt-n2544459



Source: Greg Swiercz/South Bend Tribune via AP
  
Pete Buttigieg is many things.
At just 37, he is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He is a military veteran and a deeply religious gay man who is married but also enjoys sandwiches from (anti-same-sex marriage) Chick-fil-A. He is a Harvard-educated Rhodes scholar who speaks eight languages. He is the first ever millennial candidate for president and, so far, the only Democratic hopeful to appear on the "Fox News Sunday" show.
"I'm all of those things," said Buttigieg -- pronounced "Boot-edge-edge" -- in an interview with the New York Post. "I try not to have any kind of attribute ... be totally defining," he added.
Critics say these attributes are the very reasons why he can't beat Donald Trump. His supporters say they are the very reasons he can.
Mayor Pete, as he likes to be called, strikes a tone that is kinder and less combative than the insult-driven politics of Trump and the Democratic Party's far-left members. His boyish good looks, intelligence and military background are undoubtedly appealing, as is his faith.
"Scripture tells us to look after the least among us, that it also counsels humility and teaches us about what's bigger than ourselves," said Buttigieg, a devout Episcopalian. "It points the way toward an inclusive and unselfish politics that I strive to practice, whether I'm talking about my faith on the stump or not."
Mayor Pete's politics are already gaining traction. Since launching his exploratory committee to run for president on Jan. 23, he has already raised $7 million for his campaign. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 4 percent of Democrats would vote for him -- the same number that supports Elizabeth Warren, who has been a U.S. senator for six years.
The fact that he was born and bred in the American Rust Belt is possibly his biggest asset.
"Our party can and should do better in the industrial Midwest," Buttigieg said. "I'm convinced that so many people in this part of the country are already with us, much more than with the other party on issues, on substance, on policy."
He said his experience in his hometown of South Bend proves there are solutions that work besides a "promise to turn back the clock."
When Buttigieg was first elected to office in South Bend in 2011, the city was on its knees. Job growth was nonexistent, and like many Rust Belt cities with declining industry, it had been hemorrhaging jobs since the '70s.
First, he improved the cosmetics of the town by demolishing more than 1,000 abandoned homes, and then he focused on revitalizing it by attracting hundreds of millions in private investment for commercial development.
You won't find Buttigieg ridiculing fellow Midwestern voters or taking them for granted, the way Hillary Clinton's campaign did in 2015. After the University of Notre Dame, based in South Bend, invited her to attend their prestigious St. Patrick's Day event, her campaign declined, telling organizers that "white Catholics were not the audience she needed to spend time reaching out to," as The New York Times wrote.
Trump would go on to win those white Catholic votes in 2016 -- 52 percent of them, according to Pew's exit polls, reversing the gains Democrats made when Barack Obama earned their votes in 2008 and 2012.
Even so, Buttigieg's religious beliefs haven't prevented him from taking progressive positions on major issues.
He supports abortions into the third trimester out of a belief in "freedom from government," he said. And he won't rule out tax hikes. "If the only way I can get all of us paid parental leave, universal health care, dramatically improved child care, better education, good infrastructure and, therefore, longer life expectancy and a healthier economy is to raise revenue, then we should be honest about that," he said.
And although natural gas leads to good, solid jobs in the Rust Belt, he is a big booster of wind and solar power. "I think the goal still has to be focused on renewables," he said.
But just because Buttigieg has a progressive platform doesn't mean he'll get an easy ride from far-left Democrats. Last month, the woke crowd at Slate questioned the young mayor's credentials with a since-changed headline that read "Is Pete Buttigieg just another white male candidate, or does his gayness count as diversity?"
And just because Buttigieg is from the Rust Belt doesn't mean he can win a general election in places like Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, especially when you compare his platform to Trump's.
"He has to share their values on bread-and-butter issues like lower taxes, regulations and religious liberty," warned Dr. G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College. If he doesn't, "it would be very difficult for him to win."
But Jeff Rea, a former Republican mayor from another Indiana town and current president of the South Bend chamber of commerce, said nobody should count out Mayor Pete. He and Buttigieg have been on opposite sides on a number of projects but have "always found a way to come together for a solution."
Buttigieg "is a very data-driven guy and also a very good man," Rea added. "That has helped him win over voters who might not like progressive politics."
No mayor in history has ever run and won his or her party's nomination for president, nor has anyone under the age of 43. Then again, no businessman had ever done it until Trump came along.
Michael Wear, the faith adviser to Obama, told me he thinks Mayor Pete has a chance.
"Things change," Wear said. "And, in America, anything can happen."

"At the same time, the tax cuts for big business are fueling the federal deficit, which will be used by both Democratic and Republican politicians to call for further cuts in social spending. The February monthly federal deficit hit an all-time high of $234 billion this year, as a result of a 20 percent drop in corporate tax revenue. The deficit for the first half of 2019 is projected at $961 billion, and the deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30 is expected to reach $1.1 trillion, as bad as the deficits posted in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crash."


US Tax Day 2019: Sixty giant corporations pay zero income tax

Dozens of giant US corporations, including 60 of the Fortune 500, used deductions, credits and other tax loopholes to avoid paying any federal income tax for 2018, according to an analysis issued by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The report was published April 11, just in time for the April 15 deadline for most American working people to file their tax returns.
The 60 companies in the Fortune 500 who paid no federal income tax had net incomes just from US operations of nearly $80 billion ($79,025,000,000, to be exact). They include such household names as Amazon, Chevron, Deere, Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Goodyear, Halliburton, Honeywell, IBM, Eli Lilly, Netflix, Occidental Petroleum, Prudential Financial and US Steel.
Meanwhile, millions of moderate-income families are finding that their income taxes have either increased or their expected tax refunds have evaporated because of restrictions on the itemization of tax deductions, the imposition of a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions and a cut in the mortgage interest deduction.
Nearly all of the 60 companies that paid no taxes qualified to receive a refund from the US Treasury, although most will not collect a check, instead using the credit to offset future taxes. But whatever the bookkeeping process, American taxpayers are effectively paying money to them, despite their vast profits. The biggest refunds include those going to Prudential, $346 million (added to its $1.44 billion in profits); Duke Energy, a whopping $647 million (added to $3.02 billion in profits); and Deere, $268 million (added to $2.15 billion in profits).
Among the report’s most outrageous findings:
Amazon more than zeroed-out its tax bill on $10.8 billion in profits, making use of accelerated depreciation deductions on equipment as well as favorable tax treatment of stock-based compensation for executives like CEO Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest man in the world. The stock compensation deduction alone was worth $1 billion. Amazon will actually show a credit of $129 million from the US Treasury, not paying one cent in federal income taxes.
IBM is another corporate giant that has gamed the tax system by shifting earnings to its foreign operations to escape US taxation. The company reported worldwide profits of $8.7 billion, but only $500 million in the United States. It will reap a $342 million credit from the Treasury.
Delta Airlines accumulated $17.1 billion in federal pre-tax net losses as of 2010, partly as a consequence of a protracted crisis of the airline industry, partly as a result of the 2008 Wall Street crash. It has used these losses as well as the accelerated depreciation credit for purchase of new planes to “dramatically reduce their tax rates,” according to the ITEP report, receiving a credit of $187 million in 2018 despite net profits of more than $5 billion. According to Delta’s chief financial officer, the actual tax rate the company expects to pay going forward is between 10 and 13 percent, far below what a typical Delta worker pays on his or her income.
EOG Resources, a renamed remnant of Enron, perpetrator of the biggest corporate fraud in American history, can collect $304 million from US taxpayers on top of $4.07 billion in profits.
For one company, the federal tax refund would actually exceed net profits. Gannett made a $7 million profit, while showing an additional $11 million credit from the Treasury, giving the newspaper publishing giant an effective tax rate of negative 164 percent.
IBM’s tax rate was a negative 68 percent, while software maker Activision Blizzard and construction company AECOM Technology both posted effective tax rates of negative 51 percent.
Sixteen of the 60 companies made more than a billion dollars in net income on their US operations, to say nothing of foreign subsidiaries. Oil and gas producers and utilities comprised more than one-third of the total, led by Chevron and Occidental among the oil companies, and DTE Energy, American Electric Power, Duke Energy and Dominion Resources among the utilities.
The 60 companies profited enormously because the Trump tax cut bill cut the basic rate for corporations from 35 percent to 21 percent, while not eliminating the loopholes they had previously used to keep their taxes low. They had the best of both worlds, paying lower rates while still enjoying loopholes.
Overall, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, an arm of Congress, the cut in the corporate tax rate alone will pump $1.35 trillion into the pockets of the corporations over the next 10 years. For this year alone, corporate taxes have been cut by 31 percent.
For the 60 companies in the ITEP report, “Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes, as the new 21 percent corporate tax rate requires, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion, blowing a $20.7 billion hole in the federal budget last year.”
This figure by itself is an irrefutable answer to all the bogus claims—made to workers in every part of the United States—that there is “no money” to pay for needed social programs, for wage and benefit increases, or to hire additional workers to reduce overwork and understaffing. The $20.7 billion would pay for a $7,000 bonus to every public school teacher in America.
The bonanza that these 60 corporations are enjoying is three times the amount that Trump proposes to cut from the budget of the Department of Education. It is 10 times the total amount budgeted for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which provides services for more than 2 million Native Americans. It is nearly 20 times the budget of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which conducts workplace safety inspections.
The ITEP report, issued by a group with close ties to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal Washington think tank, warns of the explosive political consequences of the corporate plundering of the Treasury. “The specter of big corporations avoiding all income taxes on billions in profits sends a strong and corrosive signal to Americans: that the tax system is stacked against them, in favor of corporations and the wealthiest Americans,” the report says.
At the same time, the tax cuts for big business are fueling the federal deficit, which will be used by both Democratic and Republican politicians to call for further cuts in social spending. The February monthly federal deficit hit an all-time high of $234 billion this year, as a result of a 20 percent drop in corporate tax revenue. The deficit for the first half of 2019 is projected at $961 billion, and the deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30 is expected to reach $1.1 trillion, as bad as the deficits posted in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crash.



The number of U.S. companies paying zero federal taxes DOUBLED when Trump's tax plan took effect in 2018

·         60 large companies managed to escape 2018 taxes under Trump's new plan 
·         Many of those corporations actually received tax rebates totaling $4.3 billion
·         The businesses include: Amazon, Netflix, Chevron, Delta Airlines, JetBlue Airways, IBM, General Motors, Goodyear, Eli Lilly and United States Steel
·         The result is a $20.7 billion budget hole that is adding to America's federal debt
President Donald Trump's tax policy doubled the number of highly profitable companies that were able to avoid paying any federal taxes in 2018, according to a new report.
Amazon, Netflix, Chevron, Delta Airlines, IBM, General Motors and Eli Lilly were among those who managed to escape taxes for last year, according to the study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
'Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes, as the new 21 percent corporate tax rate requires, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion, blowing a $20.7 billion hole in the federal budget last year,' the report says. 
The Washington, D.C. think tank analyzed America's 560 largest publicly held companies, finding that 60 of them paid nothing in taxes for last year – double the average of roughly 30 companies that got away scot-free each year from 2008-2015.

Republicans in Congress pushed through the tax law signed by Trump in 2017, and its policies favoring the richest Americans and most valuable U.S. companies took effect in 2018.



Andrea Mitchell: Trump Epitomizes America’s ‘Profound Narcissism’



PAM KEY
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Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” host Andrea Mitchell said President Donald Trump was considered to epitomize America’s “profound narcissism” during a discussion with New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Mitchell said, “In fact, the country in so many ways has been moving toward a profound narcissism. Which we see perhaps epitomized, some would say, in our president. But it goes beyond just this president. It’s the culture and the political conversation.”
Brooks said, “Right. We have a crisis of 
disconnection where we are just not close to each 
other. The number of people who say no one knows 
them well is up. The number of people committing 
suicide is up. The number of teenagers committing 
suicide is up 70% over the last few years.”