Rep. McDermott Scolds GE: It’s ‘Absolutely Irritating’ That It Pays Less In Taxes

[cal04]

It’s ‘Absolutely Irritating’ That It Pays Less In Taxes Than A Nonprofit’s Secretary
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/30/rep-mcdermott-general-electric/

(snip)
Yesterday, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) spoke at a CAP event titled “Measuring Our Progress in Reducing U.S. Poverty,” where he discussed adequate benchmarks for measuring poverty in the United States. He sat down with ThinkProgress for an interview, where we asked him about GE’s corporate tax dodging. The congressman told us that it’s absolutely irritating that a company as rich as GE could be paying less in taxes than a secretary at our workplace, the Center for American Progress:

THINKPROGRESS: Congressman, last week we saw a front page New York Times story about General Electric, which is the largest corporation in our country, it actually didn’t pay anything, in taxes, it actually received billions of dollars in tax benefits —

MCDERMOTT: $3.2 billion –

THINKPROGRESS: Yes, 3.2 billion, exactly. Don’t you see a contradiction here between asking low-income people, middle-income people, working class people, students, paying with their services and benefits, while big corporations like this are getting away with nothing or even getting benefits?

MCDERMOTT: Everybody in a civilized society should pay their fair share, according to their ability to pay. You don’t expect poor people to pay half their salary for the society in which they live. But this society lives, and people make money in it and do very well in it because we’ve created this society. And it costs money to do that. And for General Electric to fool around and not pay anything, that’s where the Alternative Minimum Tax came from, a long time ago. Because it’s absolutely irritating that General Electric pays less than the secretary at the front desk of this agency, this organization. It is simply not fair.

Watch it:
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/30/rep-mcdermott-general-electric/

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Bwaaa ha ha ha ha." - RepubliCorps (R)

"Why don't you smelly American taxpayers just STFU, tune into our Fox propaganda channel, and go back to quietly paying our Fair Share for us. Suckers."

- RepubliCorps (R)

[Blue Owl]

2. "heh heh heh" -- Bu$hCo

Ain't corporate greed rad?

[Maven]

3. "Tee hee hee!" - Obama appointee Jeffrey Immelt

[upi402]

4. McDermott is old school Dem and a hero of mine!

:patriot:

[gratuitous]

5. Not only irritating, but . . .

Who has more influence and more say in how the government is run? GE, which pays zippity-do-da in taxes, or the secretary at the front desk? "Oh, but GE provides jobs!" Except they've trimmed their U.S. payroll by thousands. I always hear that money talks, but GE seems to have a voice all out of proportion to the money it contributes to promoting the general welfare (which is none).