The Corporations That Occupy Congress

Common Dreams

Some of the biggest companies in the United States have been firing workers and in some cases lobbying for rules that depress wages at the very time that jobs are needed, pay is low, and the federal budget suffers from a lack of revenue.

Last month Citizens for Tax Justice and an affiliate issued “Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008-10″. It showed that 30 brand-name companies paid a federal income tax rate of minus 6.7 percent on $160 billion of profit from 2008 through 2010 compared to a going corporate tax rate of 35 percent. All but one of those 30 companies reported lobbying expenses in Washington.
Another report, by Public Campaign, shows that 29 of those companies spent nearly half a billion dollars over those three years lobbying in Washington for laws and rules that favor their interests. Only Atmos Energy, the 30th company, reported no lobbying.
Public Campaign replaced Atmos with Federal Express, the package delivery company that paid a smidgen of tax — $37 million, or less than one percent of the $4.2 billion in profit it reported in 2008 through 2010.
For the amount spent lobbying, the companies could have hired 3,100 people at $50,000 for wages and benefits to do productive work.
The report – “For Hire: Lobbyists or the 99 percent” – says that while shedding jobs, the 30 companies are “spending millions of dollars on Washington lobbyists to stave off higher taxes or regulations.”
These and other companies have access to lawmakers and regulators that are unavailable to ordinary Americans.

After reading this I can say that I am just utterly disgusted.

I have always known this type of lobbying has been going on in Washington for longer than I’ve been on this earth, but I never really knew to what extent until I read this.

Makes me wonder just how long our government can go on doing this crap without them suffering any repercussions.

This is an unfair practice and it should be made illegal, and in my opinion, the persons responsible should be dragged out to the bottom of the steps of Capital Building and hung from a gallows till dead for treason.

This is what is destroying our country. This is what is taking away our jobs. This is the reason that this country is trillions of dollars in debt!

How is it even fair to the people of the U.S.A. that companies have access to lawmakers and regulators that are unavailable to ordinary Americans?

The almighty U.S. Government does not in any way care about its citizens!

Now that fact is clearer to me than it ever has been before and that makes me mad as hell.
So in my opinion, it doesn’t matter who we vote for in 2012. Because we will just get the shaft as we always have.

It’s just a sad state of affairs and sadly I fear that there is nothing that can be done about it.

Aww, cheer up guy! Depending upon whose date you accept, The End is only exactly/approximately a year away!

IMO, this is a subject that everyone young and old in the U.S.A. should know about and be upset over. I know that some of my OP was harsh, but I can't help the way this made me feel. I can only hope...Well, not hope, wish that this upsets my fellow ATsers as much as it has upset me.
Thanks

The fact political bribery is essentialy legal in America should really have more people thinking. I just wish they would hurry up and dispense with the pretense of a political system though, i would much rather they start being honest so the corporations can assume full control, do away with voting, senate, congress etc and just have franchise cities.

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
Aww, cheer up guy! Depending upon whose date you accept, The End is only exactly/approximately a year away!

edit on 12/20/2011 by Ex_CT2 because: (no reason given)

One can only hope!

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
Aww, cheer up guy! Depending upon whose date you accept, The End is only exactly/approximately a year away!

edit on 12/20/2011 by Ex_CT2 because: (no reason given)

You have a point there my friend.
But before we know it they will be using that against us also!

Originally posted by Ixtab
i would much rather they start being honest so the corporations can assume full control, do away with voting, senate, congress etc and just have franchise cities.

You are now entering Houston, sponsered by Pepsi

reply to post by Talltexxxan


Its gonna happen man, one way or another its just the way it is, i just think its in everyones best interest they dont spend the next 20-30 years lying to us.

Problem is, they might understand there could be a considerable backlash about having created this "democracy" illusion, so if they were to turn round tmrw and say, look, its a lie, you know it, we know, its a big lie, last couple of hundreds of industrialized civilization, all lies, sorry!. The streets would go up in flames.

So slowly but surely they will break us in gently, being more and more blatant about this facade of government so that it really wont be any great surprise when the curtains drawn back.

reply to post by Ixtab

I agree with you.
If this is there plan, I wish they would get it done already.

But for right now, I think all that they are worried about is filling their pockets with greenbacks.
Let's see just how far the money will get them when it all comes crashing down around them.

This is an unfair practice and it should be made illegal, and in my opinion, the persons responsible should be dragged out to the bottom of the steps of Capital Building and hung from a gallows till dead for treason.

I couldn't agree more, with both points!

This is what is destroying our country. This is what is taking away our jobs.

On that, I disagree.
In the current setup (literally) if we were to raise taxes on these corrupt companies, they would simply move jobs to another country, while promoting the "buy American" scam.
We would actually lose jobs if we were to tax them because politicians would be bribed away from any thought of a tariff.

This is the reason that this country is trillions of dollars in debt! How is it even fair to the people of the U.S.A. that companies have access to lawmakers and regulators that are unavailable to ordinary Americans?

I've said before, and will say again, currently, the American People are they only group without a lobby on their behalf.
Sad.

reply to post by mikemck1976


That's certainly eye opening ( just the shear ammount of money) but not surprising. They pay for their lobying with the money they save from layoffs. I'd be nice to see a chart of money spent by them month over month, I bet higher spending habits towards lobying or "legal" bribery in general, also correlate with layoffs.

~Keeper

Originally posted by Ixtab
reply to post by Talltexxxan

 

Its gonna happen man, one way or another its just the way it is, i just think its in everyones best interest they dont spend the next 20-30 years lying to us.

Problem is, they might understand there could be a considerable backlash about having created this "democracy" illusion, so if they were to turn round tmrw and say, look, its a lie, you know it, we know, its a big lie, last couple of hundreds of industrialized civilization, all lies, sorry!. The streets would go up in flames.

So slowly but surely they will break us in gently, being more and more blatant about this facade of government so that it really wont be any great surprise when the curtains drawn back.

Anyone who thinks the USA is a democracy has either just arrived or hasn't been paying attention during civics and social studies classes. There is no lie: "... and to the republic..." is self-explanatory. There was no lie or illusion.

Originally posted by abecedarian

Originally posted by Ixtab
reply to post by Talltexxxan

 

Its gonna happen man, one way or another its just the way it is, i just think its in everyones best interest they dont spend the next 20-30 years lying to us.

Problem is, they might understand there could be a considerable backlash about having created this "democracy" illusion, so if they were to turn round tmrw and say, look, its a lie, you know it, we know, its a big lie, last couple of hundreds of industrialized civilization, all lies, sorry!. The streets would go up in flames.

So slowly but surely they will break us in gently, being more and more blatant about this facade of government so that it really wont be any great surprise when the curtains drawn back.

Anyone who thinks the USA is a democracy has either just arrived or hasn't been paying attention during civics and social studies classes. There is no lie: "... and to the republic..." is self-explanatory. There was no lie or illusion.

edit on 12/21/2011 by abecedarian because: (no reason given)

Well, id say go out into the street tomorrow, ask random people in the street what a Republic is and, what if any affect that may have on a democratic process. If you even think for a second the majority of people will even be able to tell you what a Republic actually is, your high.

The illusion of democracy has been in place since ancient Greece and perpetrated by each and every government("democratic") since, to say there is no lie nor the illusion of democracy is maintained by those in power for the benefit of the many, again, you must be high, really really high.

Sorry, but i really am not willing to go through the thousands of times a president, prime minister, senator, congressmen, party member, media person, essentialy anyone with a degree of influence over the masses has mentioned what a lovely democracy we all enjoy here in the West and to what extent people actualy believe them. I think the current state of events in the world should be enough to prove my point.