On Tax Day, tell Congress to make corporations pay their fair share

On Tax Day, tell Congress to make Corporations pay their fair share

I’m tired of hearing Washington politicians talking about cuts to education and social programs as “shared sacrifice,” as if Wall St. CEOs are paying their fare share.

I’m sure you’ve read recent stories about GE paying no taxes in 2010. But this is no aberration. Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Boeing are among the corporations that paid no income taxes. 1 The truth is, even when they pay taxes, major corporations pay only a tiny fraction of the corporate tax rate. Chevron, for example, paid only a 1% tax rate on its U.S. profits.2

On Tax Day, let’s send a message to Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Pat Toomey and the other Tea Party Republicans: “No more cuts to programs that benefit working families. Make the wealthy and Wall St. CEOs pay their fair share.”

We can balance the budget with better choices. Let’s start here:

Tell Congress to pass a fair budget that taxes the wealthy fairly and restores the cuts to vital programs. That’s shared sacrifice I can support.

In Solidarity,

Michael Morrill

Keystone Progress

1http://payupnow.org

2http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/13/tax-dodging-lobbying-congress