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Action Alert: War Profiteering
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Al Loewy
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Nov 02, 2001 00:57 PST
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[Facts and figures below provided by moveon.org]
In this time of national crisis, amid calls for sacrifice, I'm truly
troubled by some of the choices of the Republican party leadership.
Here's their idea of an economic stimulus package:
$1.4 billion for IBM
$833 million for General Motors
$671 million for General Electric
$572 million for Chevron Texaco
$254 million for Enron
This is war profiteering, and it's simply wrong. Yet the House has
just approved it, on a virtual party line vote, ending the recent
spirit of bipartisan cooperation in Congress.
Will you please join me in speaking up, before the Senate acts? Go to:
http://www.moveon.org/warprofiteering/
While our nation was reeling from the anthrax threat, the House voted
to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax on corporations. This law
normally requires hugely profitable companies to pay at least some
tax, no matter how many loopholes they can find. Its repeal would
allow many companies to pay zero U.S. income tax in perpetuity -- a
loss of more than $12 billion in revenue next year alone.
The repeal is retroactive, so companies would get rebates of all the
Alternative Minimum Tax they've paid for the last 15 years. The
numbers above are a sampling of these rebates.
The House also voted to allow corporations to store their profits
overseas as a tax shelter. That's right -- this "stimulus" would
actually take money OUT of the U.S. economy. It's backwards.
The right approach to stimulus is to put more money in the hands of
everyday people who need it most -- by expanding unemployment
insurance, for example. People living marginally will spend it
quickly on consumer goods, so it circulates through the economy,
benefiting everyone.
Helping people would make economic sense. Giving billions in tax
breaks to America's biggest corporations doesn't.
The Senate is considering this issue now. Please speak up with me at:
http://www.moveon.org/warprofiteering/
Thank you. We've got to stick together on this.
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