2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumTop Ten Corporate Tax Dodgers Donated to Hillary Clinton & Got Quid Pro Quo:
All of the Top 10 Corporate Tax Dodgers Have Donated to Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton has financial relationships with some of Americas biggest corporate tax dodgers.
Bernie Sanders recently outed the 10 biggest multinational corporations that paid no federal taxes for at least one year between 2008 and 2012. Sanders has made reining in corporate tax dodgers a key point of his presidential platform. In a recent press release, the Sanders campaign laid out the Vermont senators plans to force multinational corporations to pay their fair share in taxes:
As it turns out, all ten of those same companies are some of Hillary Clintons biggest donors, whether to her campaign or to her family foundation.
1. General Electric
According to data from the nonpartisan group Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), GE posted $33.9 billion in U.S. profits, yet somehow got $2.9 billion in refunds in that same time period.
According to the book Clinton Cash, then-Secretary of State Clinton lobbied the Algerian government for a GE power plant contract.
After Algeria awarded the contract to GE, Jeffrey Immelt CEO of GE gave a donation to the Clinton Foundation.
Sanders also pointed out that while Immelt sat on the board of the New York Federal Reserve, the Fed gave GE $16 billion in financial assistance.
2. Boeing
Boeing is one of the nations biggest corporate tax dodgers, making over $20 billion in profits between 2008 and 2012 and paying an overall income tax rate of negative one percent during those years. Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer noted that after Secretary Clinton successfully lobbied the Russian government to enter into a $3.7 billion contract to buy Boeings aircraft, the aerospace company gave the Clinton Foundation a hefty donation of $900,000.
3. Verizon
In the four years between 2008 and 2012, Verizon pocketed over $30 billion in profits and paid a tax rate of -1.8 percent, according to CTJ. The Sanders campaigns research claims that in 2012 alone, Verizon would have paid $630 million in income taxes had they been unable to stash U.S. profits in offshore tax havens.
Verizon has given between $118,000 and $300,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years. And as Zaid Jilani reported in Alternet last year, Hillary Clinton is the favored candidate of numerous Verizon executives, many of whom have given the maximum donation to her 2016 effort:
Verizon vice-presidents Lydia Pulley, Kathleen Grillo, and Donna Epps each gave $2,700 to Hillary for America. Verizon senior vice-president Thomas Edwards and vice-president Chris Debosier pitched in $1,000. Leecia Eve, a former Hillary staffer who today is a lobbyist for Verizon gave $2,700. Another Verizon lobbyist, David Lamendola, gave Hillary $1,000.
To contrast, Sanders appeared at a rally for striking Verizon workers in New York City last year, demanding the company meet the workers demands and admonishing its executives for the companys greedy practices.
4. Bank of America
In 2010, Bank of America got a whopping $1.9 billion refund from the IRS despite making $4.4 billion in profit. And the Institute for Policy Studies reported that Bank of America has over 300 foreign subsidiaries in countries and territories universally known as tax havens, like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.
In his recent groundbreaking report for The Intercept, Jilani reported that Bank of America paid Hillary Clinton $225,000 in speaking fees after her tenure as Secretary of State.
5. Citigroup
Citigroup was the largest recipient of federal bailout money, getting an astonishing $2.5 trillion after the financial crisis even though they played a major role in the financial meltdown. Citi also paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2010 despite making profits in excess of $4 billion. Had the bank been unable to utilize offshore tax havens, it would have paid $11.5 billion in federal taxes in 2012.
According to campaign finance database OpenSecrets.org, Citigroup is Hillary Clintons top donor, having given over $824,000 in campaign contributions throughout her political career.
6. Pfizer
The Connecticut-based pharmaceutical giant is notorious for its tax avoidance strategies, paying $0 in federal income tax between 2010 and 2012 and getting a $2.2 billion tax refund despite posting $43 billion in global profits.
Pfizer executives gave nearly $40,000 to Clintons presidential campaign between April and September 2015. And Pfizer itself has given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to donor records obtained by the Washington Times.
7. FedEx
In 2011, FedEx made $2.7 billion in profit, yet they were given a $135 million tax refund from the IRS that same year. FedEx also receives $1 billion a year in corporate welfare from the U.S. Post Office its chief competitor to use its aircraft to transport U.S. mail.
FedEx has given anywhere between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation. The company was also one of four corporations to bundle a $2.5 million donation to Clintons new diplomacy center (Boeing was another).
8. Honeywell
Despite making over $3 billion in combined profits between 2009 and 2010, Honeywell paid $0 in federal income taxes and got roughly $510 million in refunds. Honeywell CEO David Cote was also one of the loudest voices on the Fix The Debt campaign, calling for the Social Security and Medicare age to be raised to 70.
Honeywell, a prominent weapons manufacturer, also gave $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. At the same time, Honeywell and others had their weapons shipped to countries blasted by international watchdogs for their deplorable records on human rights.
9. Merck
Merck is one of the nations largest pharmaceutical companies and biggest tax dodgers in 2009, Merck pocketed $5.7 billion in profits, yet paid $0 in federal taxes. Merck successfully got out of paying $18.69 billion in federal taxes in 2012 by stashing $53.4 billion of its U.S. profits in overseas tax havens.
10. Corning
CTJ reports that between 2008 and 2012, Corning made over $3.4 billion in profits and got a $10 million tax refund, paying a 0.1 percent federal tax rate. The Sanders campaign pointed out that Corning CEO Wendell Weeks has called for the retirement age to be raised to 70, while he himself has a $22.8 million retirement account.
While Clinton headed up the State Department, Corning lobbied heavily for multiple policies on which it stood to reap financial gains, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Clinton, in turn, lobbied China to lower tariffs on the type of goods manufactured by Corning.
The company has also donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation and paid the former Secretary of State $225,000 in speaking fees after she announced her presidential campaign.
http://usuncut.com/politics/each-of-the-top-10-corporate-tax-dodgers-donate-to-hillary-clinton/
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)msongs
(67,413 posts)think
(11,641 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)They sure don't want him using their money to help the poor.
What about you?
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)Corporations give money to the Clinton Foundation because they want to promote charitable work and other good causes. Those tax breaks and favors are sheer coincidence.
redstateblues
(10,565 posts)Where is the quid pro quo. What laws were broken?
frylock
(34,825 posts)scottie55
(1,400 posts)All?
So you don't see anything wrong?
Better see an eye doctor my friend.
We spent/will spend 3 trillion dollars and counting in Iraq to protect oil company profits, and they don't even pay taxes.
Not to mention all the dead guys....
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)She, her campaign, and the beltway have yet to realize that the entire election is about $ in politics. Period. You can't convince me otherwise. At least, that's where it is now...
AOR
(692 posts)have no fear... Hillary2016 has your back dear struggling workers.
amborin
(16,631 posts)GE announced today the plant will close as soon as September 2014 after it rejected a proposal by the union to avert a shutdown.
Boost Productivity
The shift has nothing to do with worker pay, according to Sebastien Duchamp, a GE spokesman, who said the company doesnt comment on its wages. Closing the Fort Edward plant, which the company says has been unprofitable for years, and moving work to an existing facility run by its energy management business in Clearwater will help GE stay competitive by boosting productivity, Duchamp said.
GEs business units continuously review their operations and sometimes have to make tough decisions to keep up with market trends, address customer demands or reduce cost, Duchamp said in an e-mail. The intention of the proposed move is to address the increasing cost pressures and leverage the resources available at the Florida site.
Bruce Ostrander, 64, whos spent 21 years with GE, said he has little hope of finding a position matching his current pay at the Fort Edward plant. He lives in the Glens Falls part of New York state, which lost more more than 10 percent of its manufacturing jobs over the past 10 years. Factory jobs account for about 10 percent of the areas employment, or about half of the early 1990s level.
Im forced into retirement, Ostrander said in a telephone interview. Im not a doddering old man. I want to work.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-11-21/no-renaissance-for-u-s-factory-workers-as-pay-stagnates
AOR
(692 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)stand behind corrupt Big Money I can't imagine.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Our so-called system is corrupt to the core.
Qutzupalotl
(14,317 posts)All that effort making it, and they just give it to politicians for no reason. Just out of the goodness of their heart.
Oh sure, they COULD give it to a homeless person, but they'd just spend it on liquor.
retrowire
(10,345 posts)trillion
(1,859 posts)scottie55
(1,400 posts)I gave one of my employees a copy of his w2 today. He paid $22,000 in income tax. Also SS and Medicare.
Ain't america great!
After all his deductions (kids, wife, mortgage) this is what he will owe.
Samantha
(9,314 posts)along with many other things. It is also why we can't afford Social Security, Medicare and Disability programs any longer, much less single payer health insurance....
Sam
trillion
(1,859 posts)I'm amazed anyone doesn't know she's the candidate for the .1 % yet.
Oldtimeralso
(1,937 posts)The trouble is that due to corporate control of the media the public will never know these facts.
amborin
(16,631 posts)Not too long ago, Boeing threatened striking IAM workers in Washington who were making demands against outsourcing, wwages & benefits, and two-tier wage structures.
So, Boeing shifted work to South Carolina. Here's the wage difference:
Assembly workers at Boeings nonunion plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, earn an average of $17 an hour, compared with $27.65 for the more-experienced Machinists-represented workforce at the companys wide-body jet plant in Everett, Washington, said Bryan Corliss, a union spokesman
think
(11,641 posts)her pocket from the biggest tax avoiding corporations in America.
Then there's the corrupt too big to fail banks that have given her millions more in direct income.
Hillary didn't care about the appearance of corruption and collusion. She just kept raking in the dough....