Fox’s Brit Hume Is Left Speechless When Asked About G.E. Paying Zero Federal Taxes

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

VIDEO: Fox’s Brit Hume Is Left Speechless When Asked About G.E. Paying Zero Federal Taxes
While any sober solution to the country’s deficit problem should include both revenue enhancement and spending cuts, conservatives have been completely unwilling to even consider tax increases, proposing steep cuts that will do little to solve the deficit, while doing much to hurt the middle class and the most vulnerable. Toeing that conservative line on Fox News Sunday today, Fox personality Brit Hume argued that cutting taxes will actually lead to increased tax revenue. Fox analyst Juan Williams responded by noting this is often not the case, citing the fact that G.E. — the nation’s largest company — paid nothing in taxes last year. Williams’ response flummoxed Hume, who appeared dumbfounded and at a loss for words. Host Chris Wallace had to jump in to smooth things over with a joke:

WILLIAMS: You’re going on as if, you know what, we don’t know how in America how to help our own deficit problem. We do! We just have to tax people.

HUME: Juan, Juan. What we need is not higher tax rates. What we need is higher revenue. And how do you get higher revenues? You get higher revenues from an expanding economy. That’s where the big money comes from.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, and G.E. paying no taxes? That’s good for America? Come on, you know that’s not right.



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WALLACE: I just want to say, I pay all my taxes!

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/03/brit-hume-ge-taxes-speechless/

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VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S9xYK9pZ65w

[madrchsod]

1. williams will be looking for another job....

anyone at fox that dares tell the truth is just asking for a pink slip...

[jerseyjack]

4. His sorry ass will be out the door by 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Doesn't he know the party line?

[totodeinhere]

26. No, he is their token black and token liberal. They will keep him on the air. n/t

[harmonicon]

70. i never got the "token liberal" part.

It seemed that he was the one vocal conservative on NPR, and that they'd kept him around for that. I don't really see how he can be both the conservative voice in one place and the liberal voice in another... of course I guess I do at Fox, where conservatives are left of the bat-shit-crazy that the network is a mouth-piece for.

[totodeinhere]

71. You're right. He's not that liberal, except by Fox standards he is an outright

flaming liberal.

[bongbong]

8. Juan will be sent to the detention room

One of Murlock's minions will be dispatched to have a little talk with Juan. If that doesn't work, he will be banished to the morning show with those 3 idiots that Jon Stewart constantly rips.

[Ikonoklast]

64. ....and Bingo was his name-O!

Yep.

[EC]

12. Nope

because he picked GE to point out corps not paying taxes and GE is the boogey man to FOX because they use it as code for MSNBC. So nothing will happen to Williams, he's just pointing out a bad thing about their competitor.

[ReggieVeggie]

24. nothing will happen to williams either way

he's been a Fox darling for years

[PassingFair]

63. It's probably OK to slam GE, because they are competitors to FAUX...nt

[physioex]

66. I think you are correct.....

There was a show with John Stossel called "Freeloaders", and he was bashing GE as well. But it was selective bashing as he was bashing mostly their green energy divisions.

[juajen]

2. The lack of US taxes that GE pays is because they have outsourced

so many jobs and facilities out of the US. The WTO is permitting trade imbalances and our tax code weighs heavily in favor of corporations. The WTO needs to be brought to their knees by the US and our tax code needs to be changed to punish companies who outsource and use their profits overseas to plump their companies' bottom line while getting out of paying more expensive taxes in the US. The republicans and corporations carried out a coup in this country over the last fifty years or so, and we have ourselves to blame. It appears we just didn't listen to Ike.

[iemitsu]

3. yes, the WTO needs to be broken.

they are not elected in any fashion and they dictate conditions in "sovereign" states. no country should be willing to subject themselves and their citizens to the dictates of an international business cartel.

[annabanana]

60. The WTO is just shorthand for rogue capital.. Money going where money

wants to go, following no rules but it's own.. Lawless.

[elleng]

6. To some extent due to outsourcing, but its the tax code itself.

They have ? hundreds of regular employees in their tax department whose job it is to be certain they don't miss a single part of the code, and that they apply it thoroughly.

[No Elephants]

27. juajen was right:

[elleng]

33. The tax code should be changed,

and the rationale for enabling corporations to not pay taxes on profits should be reexamined and deep-sixed, imo.

The major rationale, I think, is that the owners of public corporations, that is, their shareholders, are taxed on THEIR corporate assets such as dividends, appreciation in stock value, capital gains, etc, so corporations themselves should not be taxed on profits because that would amount to DOUBLE taxation of the same assets.

If we spend our time blaming WTO, we'll NEVER get to the foundation of the bad tax policy, imo. Outsourcing is an example of another corporate behavior which is bad for the U.S. people, but certainly not the only, or even the major one.

[No Elephants]

9. .......

[No Elephants]

5. I know, but....GE is the parent of NBC and MSNBC. I watch both a fair amount daily, yet

I first heard about GE's tax situation on the Comedy Network (Daily Show).

Can't fault FOX for that one!

[elleng]

7. Didn't Rachel discuss this?

[FarLeftFist]

11. Yes, and she even mentioned GE and NBCs affiliation. n/t

[No Elephants]

19. They HAVE to mention the affiliation. If they forget, they apologize later.

Please see also Reply 18.

[PatSeg]

15. It was on MSNBC that I first heard about

GE and taxes. It probably was Rachel, but I heard others at MSNBC mention it as well.

[No Elephants]

25. Before or after Jon Stewart did the story? And did folks on other GE networks do the story?

[PatSeg]

31. Before

I remember watching The Daily Show after I'd already heard about it. Stewart mentioned that NBC Nightly News didn't comment on the story, even though it was reported numerous time on MSNBC. I think it would have been to NBC's benefit to have reported it as well, being their competitors were covering the story.

[No Elephants]

34. You may have seen a follow up story by Stewart, not his first.

The night I saw it, Stewart just gave the story, without a word about mention who else had or had not also covered it. However, his saying NBC did not cover it confirms my original post.

My point was not to diss opinion giving anchors on MSNBC, esp. the lefties. My point was to say GE is as corrupt as Faux.

As my Reply 18 implies, this should have been a big NEWS story on MSNBC, NBC, CNBC and anything else GE owns, not only something only Dem opinion giving anchors on MSNBC mentioned.

[PatSeg]

43. I'm not defending GE or NBC

However, I watch MSNBC every weekday and every episode of The Daily Show the night it airs. My memory is that when I heard it on Stewart's show, I had already heard it on MSNBC throughout the day. Yes I agree, it should have been a big news story on all news networks regardless of affiliation.

[No Elephants]

18. What's your point?

Is it that GE owned media gave GE's tax story the coverage it warranted bc one opinion commentator on one GE network discussed it? With tax cuts for the rich, offshoring of jobs and favoring of big business all being such hot topis?

Besides, given my prior post, why ask me if Maddow disussed it?

[elleng]

20. Responding to your comment:

'I first heard about GE's tax situation on the Comedy Network.'

[No Elephants]

21. How is your question a response to my saying I first heard about it via Daily Show?

[freshwest]

42. I fault them for the coup of 2000. That means they'll never get a pass from me.

[NewJeffCT]

62. Comcast owns NBC now

GE sold them off last year.

[FarLeftFist]

10. He stared at the camera like an actor who forgot his lines. n/t

[PatSeg]

32. He IS an actor

playing a newscaster who evidently wasn't fed the right lines. At FOX they're pretty much all performers. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[freshwest]

44. Bad actors, too. They think angry yelling equals giving a damn. They don't.

[PatSeg]

48. Very, very bad actors indeed

They don't even have good screen presence to compensate for it either. How long could a sane person look at a face like Brit Hume's? He has only one facial expression and I think he got that from the blood hound in Lady and the Tramp.

[calimary]

49. I wonder if meGYN kelly gets little wisps of smoke coming out of her tiny ears

when she gets her designer lingerie in a twist. She gets so worked up in the most insensed, moral OUTRAGE! Poor little dear...

:sarcasm:

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

13. Really??? "cutting taxes will actually lead to increased tax revenue."

:eyes: :dunce:

[PatSeg]

17. I know, makes your head spin doesn't it?

Of course, it worked so well for Bush.

[freshwest]

22. They've been repeating a meme for years without knowing that govt. revenue *is* taxes. Sigh.

[No Elephants]

30. Meh. I think most of them know very well. It's not called "Faux" News for no reason.

[freshwest]

38. Screw Fox News! I prefer the FKN NEWZ, voice of the landless peasant slaves:

I expect more truth from this guy, and just as entertaining:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah1c5OIwzwc&feature=related

Be forewarned, he uses bad words and commits thought crimes.

:hi:

[totodeinhere]

28. The theory is that cutting taxes will stimulate more business activity which will lead to

more tax revenue in the long run because even though they will be taxed at a lower rate there will be a net increase in tax revenue because of the increased business activity caused by the tax cuts.

But the problem with that is that in the real world it has never really worked. It has been tried and it failed miserably.

[No Elephants]

36. The theory really breaks down when any business activity generated occurs overseas.

[freshwest]

45. It's allowed so much money to be sucked out the economy that it's suffocating.

They have effectively killed the flow of money back and forth through society, thus killing the economy.

But don't worry, they've got their escape route chartered.

[MissMillie]

40. Well, it never has....

but it sounds good to so many people that you just can't convince them otherwise.

They like to pull out Reagan's record on this, but they fail to mention that Reagan RAISED taxes 6 or 7 times on the middle class (gas taxes, payroll taxes, and the like).

[ejpoeta]

59. if you let the rich keep their money, they'll invest it thus creating more jobs

and thus more revenue. As you can see how well that has worked out since the tax cuts bush passed. Look at all the jobs it created!! That's why we aren't in a recession right now and unemployment is so low..... oh wait. nevermind.

[Pacifist Patriot]

65. Sometimes I think there must be a worm hole to an alternate universe...

where things work very differently.

[Marr]

69. It hasn't yet, but they'll keep on saying it until

100% of the country's resources are in the hands of three people.

[shanti]

14. bill maher brought this up last friday

he's so on top of things, i often wonder if his scriptwriters (or he himself) reads DU!

[JJW]

16. Normally FOX would endurse no taxes

but seeing how Obama appointed Immelt hob creation czar, their just having fun at pointing out what a corporate tool Obama is.

[freshwest]

23. Ummm...

[Fuzz]

29. The look on his face was priceless. 'I like no taxes, but I hate GE because I think NBC is liberal,

can't compute, must . . . go. . .to . . . . commercial'

[LiberalAndProud]

35. Don't they pay less than zero? Don't they in fact receive a refund?

Zero would be an improvement.

[No Elephants]

37. Stewart said a "tax benefit." I think he would have said "refund"if that had been the case.

Most people understand "refund" better than things like a net operating loss carryforward.

[LiberalAndProud]

46. Don't you have to realize a loss to carry it forward?

Count me among "most people".

[MissMillie]

39. A lot of people just don't get it

Yes, the corporate tax rate is 35%, but few corporations pay that much because of loopholes and deductions. Many of the big corporations don't pay anything in taxes, which begs the question, "How do you cut the taxes on a corporation that pays 0%?"

[elleng]

47. Exactly, as I said in #27 above,

the rationale for enabling corporations to not pay taxes on profits should be reexamined and deep-sixed, imo.

The major rationale, I think, is that the owners of public corporations, that is, their shareholders, are taxed on THEIR corporate assets such as dividends, appreciation in stock value, capital gains, etc, so corporations themselves should not be taxed on profits because that would amount to DOUBLE taxation of the same assets.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

52. here's how they get away with not paying....

GE's tax return form is 24,000 pages long....there are not enough IRS agents to read through and come up with an amount for GE to pay, so walla...they don't have to pay what can't be verified....so no revenues

all the corporations do the same thing....over whelm the IRS and lobby congress to tighten its belt. no more IRS folks hired to do their job correctly

[freshwest]

41. Remember the flak when Rather mentioned GE? Jack Welch had nothing to do with 2000! Nothing!

:kick:

[creeksneakers2]

50. The wingers never complained when many Fortune 500

companies escaped taxes before. The wingers have a double standard when it comes to GE, because it owns NBC and MSNBC. In the interest of balance, the wingers should be told how many other big companies aren't paying.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

51. rut roh whatja gonna do for a job now Juan?

[calimary]

53. See? You take them outside of their talking points and their GOP-issued blast-faxes

and frank-luntz-focus-group-tested slogans and buzz phrases, and they're LOST. Totally and completely down-the-rabbit-hole orbiting-outer-Neptune LOST.

Their mental growth has been stunted. They've all been told that they don't even have to think - others will do their thinking for them, and furnishing their scripts and talking points, and blast-faxes and even whole books full of recommended and fully-massaged phrases and vocabulary words, plus directions about repetition. The cue cards are pretty much surgically attached now. Which means when you're confronted with something outside your pasteurized-process-cheese-food-product political instruction, you have nothing. You've got squat. You're no longer able to think for yourself. You no longer have a nimble mind. You need your verbal crutches to walk. Your brain has ATROPHIED. And then you're just like brit hume - pathetic, dumbed-down, and speechless. He's got NOTHING. You've been trained to play pingpong, and now all of a sudden you're in the Olympics and they hand you a unicycle.

[upi402]

54. keep that coming! n/t

[greymattermom]

55. so, if corporations are people

why don't they pay the alternative minimum tax?

[Keith Bee]

56. "Fox personality"

That's a contradiction in terms! :rofl:

[kimsarah]

57. Bathroom break

Karl Rove had to take a quick bathroom break, and thus wasn't there to help Brit when it was time for him to respond.

[ScottLand]

58. Beautiful indeed! Someone should frame that look on Hume's

face when he realizes he can't argue the point!

Hey, everybody knows bringing in more tax money doesn't bring in more revenue! Priceless.

[hobbit709]

61. We should be so lucky as to see him truly rendered speechless.

[meow2u3]

67. Another, common-sense way to get higher revenue

Close all these corporate tax loopholes, including offshore tax deferments havens, tax deductions for business personal expenses, etc. This is by no means an exhuastive list.

Other ways to cut the deficit: either tax the hell out of the use of corporate jets or make the execs fly commercial airlines, just like everybody else; bring back windfall profits taxes, luxury taxes, and keep the estate tax, instead of trying to sqeeze blood out of stones by going after working- and middle-class families and leaving the poor, the sick, the very young, and the very old to fend for themselves.

I forgot to mention we should audit the banksters who got rich off the stock market bubbles, the numerous mortgage scams of the 2000's, etc.

Poor widdle CEO's. They think they're poor because they're making only 500 times the pay of their workers. :sarcasm:

[jimlup]

68. Hume is a straight party line guy isn't he

He thinks with blinders on like most Conservatives. What an ass.