"As a student of a 12th-grade government class, ..."

[underpants]

Tax Code Favors Rich Corporations
Editor, Times-Dispatch: As a student of a 12th-grade government class, I have been informed that large corporations that make large profits pay almost nothing in federal income taxes every year. In recent studies, it has been discovered that large businesses such as Microsoft, General Electric, Ford, Worldcom, and IBM have been receiving incredibly large taxbreaks over the past five years.

In 1999, Microsoft didn't pay any income taxes over the course of the entire year, and in the past two years has only had to put 1.8 percent of its profit toward income taxes. For a multibillion-dollar corporation, that percentage is next to nothing.

It would make sense that the government would enforce a higher income tax rate for businesses such as General Electric, which made more than $50 billion over the past five years, and paid only 11.5 percent of that in federal income taxes.

These companies make enough money to be able to afford the taxes without being affected by them. Instead, the government puts the burden on smaller businesses and corporations that sometimes struggle to pay income taxes due to their lack of profit.

I do realize the importance of these large corporations and understand that keeping productivity rising is essential to a successful business; however I don't believe placing a large income tax on large corporations is going to substantially hurt them or affect the economy in any sense. Lucy Browne. midlothian.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&%09s=1045855935005&c=MGArticle&cid=1137833811038&path=%21editorials%21letters

[orwell]

1. Obviously...

...a prime candidate for "re-education."

This student needs to stop making sense or he will never be make it in BushLand.

[WinkyDink]

2. She: "Lucy Browne".

[AllegroRondo]

3. Large corporations make large political donations

and can hire lobbyists.