running for office and public schools don't!

This is fucking disgusting. It's time to cut the cord on their feeding trough.

Wait.... that didn't work. Hmmmmm

I got it!! ... Because the schools don't have lobbyists that are a bunch of capitalists. School lobbyists are just parents and teachers, that really, when it comes down to it, are just socialists.

The people who made fortunes manufacturing whale oil lamps did not all die when we stopped buying whale oil lamps. They turned to doing something else to get money. You can do it, too. Fear not! You will not die like the dinosaurs. We genuinely don't want to hurt you. We just want you to learn, change, and grow!

That was down from $ 31 billion in 2011 and 2012.

But let's keep saying they didn't pay any at all.

That sounds way cooler.

Here's their income sheet from yahoo finance

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=XOM+Income+Statement&annual

Income before taxes $ 57.7 billion

Income tax $ 24.3 billion

net income $ 32.6 billion


How does that equal 13 % ?

Anyway, it is $ 24 billion more than zero which is what the original post stated.

Someone posts something that is complete nonsense, something completely laughably false.

Oil companies pay zero taxes.

What a whopper. Tell it to Exxon, the most taxed corporation in the world.

So is the response, "Oops, I guess we need to be more careful when we share things from that source."

No, not at all. The response is "why are you defending oil companies?"

Can you beat that?

So, let me forget my job in the finance industry and get back into the DU echo chamber.

My revised and extended remarks......

OIL COMPANIES PAY ZERO TAXES. IT'S OUTRAGEOUS !!

Now I feel much better.

PS - years ago I wrote a history textbook for DC Heath and Company. How much easier it would have been if I could just make up facts.

Here's an idea, "The US didn't drop a nuke on Hiroshima, Hitler did." If someone points out that Hitler was dead when the bomb was dropped, the correct response would be, "Why are you defending Hitler?"

PSS - As far as the discrepancy on the taxes Exxon pays, Kos says 15 % while Exxon's filed financial statement shows much more than that, the answer relies on the fact that Exxon operates throughout the world. If you take their worldwide earnings and divide out the taxes paid to the US government, you get 15 %. But if you take the taxes Exxon paid and divide it from the earnings, you get 39 % (Forbes number). The difference is that Exxon pays taxes to countries, provinces, states, cities all over the world. An Exxon accountant would say, we made $ 57 billion and paid $ 24 billion in taxers. Is that not enough? To Exxon it doesn't make much difference who the tax is paid to, it comes off their earnings.

But there's not much point in explaining any of this.

Let me just close by saying,

Oil companies pay zero taxes. Zero.

And that was not the only year. You are right, not zero. LESS THAN ZERO.

so they are obviously overpaid.

If only we can get the rest of the country to realize it and work together on a solution.

It's pretty simple. Money = political power.

The education system in the US, is, in total, the largest government operation when you look at taxes, employment and spending.

It also makes people smart. So cutting education means less smart people.

And making some of education private means more profits for a few, so education as we know it has two strikes against it in congress.

God damn commies! I bet they drive Cadillacs too!

The Bush overhaul of the public school system was designed to end free K-12 education. There's nothing a wealthy person hates more than paying to educate your kids.

The No Child Left Behind act issues vouchers to help send students to private, Christian, and schools in wealthier districts. With the lack of students in public schools, they're forced to close and lay off union teachers (the real enemy).

After the schools are shuttered, republicans will abolish the vouchers as too expensive and force those students back into the public system. Classes will be grossly understaffed and overcrowded, but locals can raise property taxes to replace the federal money lost. Many in working class and poor neighborhoods will not pass such levies.

That's the ultimate goal of the GOP: "You get the best education your family can afford". Another Mission Accomplished.

Our hands are not clean. We need to wash up.

... by a bunch of megalomaniac sociopaths, that's why.

God Damn Congress and their ass-licking of BIG OIL!
They are owned!

They get what they want, when they want it. Entire nations fear huge conglomerates.

Corporate welfare is alive and well in this country, at the expense of the well-being of LIVING AND BREATHING citizens.

Yes it costs us $10Billion. But what is it these companies are doing different because of this Tax Break?

Like most tax breaks they are an exchange of some activity to receive a tax break. Without knowing what it is they are doing/not-doing, we can't really judge if it's worth $10billion or not.

It just may be because our elected leaders hold we the people in contempt.