Inequality and the Common Good

Well, let's take a look at just who exactly wants to "help" us "fix the debt."

Fix the Debt is co-chaired and co-"steered" by an array of politicians from both sides of the aisle.

But there are others on the steering committee. One of these is Dave Cote, CEO of Honeywell. Cote ranked 11th on a list compiled in a recent study conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies of executives who have saved the most from the Bush tax cuts. According to the IPS, Cote's taxable compensation for 2011 was a bit over $55 million, and he got out of paying about $2.5 million thanks to the Bush tax cuts.

. . . This is the dream team Peterson has assembled to pull us out of this whole mess. Oddly enough, you may have noticed, the lineup looks strikingly similar to that of the team that put us in this mess in the first place. . . 

Let's be very clear, Peterson and his gang are fixated on the debt because they don't want to pay their fair share of taxes!

But, is there anyone left in the English-speaking world who isn’t aware of corporations’ and Wall Street’s culpability in the current fiscal crisis?

Quick, who appears to be one of those market true-believers, does not provide empirical (nor any other) support for her characterization of Krugman’s views as “just laughable” and “downright dangerous.” The “support” on which Quick apparently depends is the position of 44 CEOs from Fortune 500 companies who slavishly embrace Hooverville mentality and are now advocating the Simpson-Bowles plan.

Quick does not mention that the many Fortune 500 companies have been contributing significantly to the deficit by not paying adequate taxes — in fact, some companies have been paying “zero” taxes. If corporations and the rich paid taxes at the same level as in the 1960s, the debt would disappear in a decade,” according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies.

But, is there anyone left in the English-speaking world who isn’t aware of corporations’ and Wall Street’s culpability in the current fiscal crisis?

Quick, who appears to be one of those market true-believers, does not provide empirical (nor any other) support for her characterization of Krugman’s views as “just laughable” and “downright dangerous.” The “support” on which Quick apparently depends is the position of 44 CEOs from Fortune 500 companies who slavishly embrace Hooverville mentality and are now advocating the Simpson-Bowles plan.

Quick does not mention that the many Fortune 500 companies have been contributing significantly to the deficit by not paying adequate taxes — in fact, some companies have been paying “zero” taxes. If corporations and the rich paid taxes at the same level as in the 1960s, the debt would disappear in a decade,” according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies.

Fix the Debt claims their agenda is not just about spending cuts. But when it comes to their tax proposals, they use the slippery term “pro-growth reform” to push for cuts in deductions that are likely to include credits for working families and — you guessed it — more corporate tax breaks. Chief among these is a proposal to switch to a territorial system under which corporate foreign earnings would be permanently exempted (instead of being taxed when they are returned to America).

This idea, also supported by the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission, would make it even more profitable for big corporations to use accounting tricks to disguise U.S. profits as income earned in tax havens. Citizens for Tax Justice estimates that such tax haven abuse will cost the Treasury more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

So who are the CEOs who are telling the rest of us to be responsible and tighten our belts after they’ve spent decades stiffing the U.S. Treasury? Of the 80 members of Fix the Debt’s CEO Fiscal Leadership Council, here are 10 that stand out as the biggest hypocrites: