While More People Fall Into Poverty, 30 Corporations Paid No Federal Taxes

There’s some good news in the job market today, as the rate of filing for unemployment dropped to 397,000, the lowest it has been in weeks. Although economists caution that the drop would need to be sustained in order to show true job recovery, it’s still a promising sign for a labor market in which the unemployment claims have dipped under 400,000 only three times in the last six months.

Less reassuring? A new report that the number of Americans living in poverty has reached a record high. Over 20 million people, or roughly one in 15, are living at or below 50 percent of the poverty level. And in D.C. itself, the number rises to over one in ten. That means that a single person is trying to survive on less than $5500 annually, and a family of four on just over $11,000. This is the largest number of Americans in poverty since the Census Bureau began tracking back in the mid 70′s.

Meanwhile, 30 of America’s top corporations paid no federal taxes in the last three years, according to Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Due to tax breaks, credits and subsidies, many actually had a negative tax rate, despite earning a total of over $160 billion in pretax profits during that period. “Pepco Holdings, a Washington, D.C.-area power company, had the lowest effective tax rate at negative 57.6 percent and 78 of the 280 Fortune 500 corporations studied enjoyed at least one year in which they paid an effective tax rate of zero or less. In addition, the average effective tax rate for the entire group of corporations studied over three years was only 18.5 percent, compared to the statutory rate of 35 percent.”

If only those corporations were using their saved tax money to hire more workers at a living wage salary.

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Read more: corporate tax breaks, economy, jobs, taxes, unemployment

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Roger B.

6:08PM PST on Nov 8, 2011

Mark, I don't know what the phuck you are talking about. I never suggested that the legislative branch should enforce the law. I suggested that they should stop giving law making powers to the executive branch. "Regulation" is a long way to spell "law".

send a green star

6:06PM PST on Nov 8, 2011

Mark, you are wasting bandwidth. I am well aware that Congress gave to these agencies the power to make regulations. That does not change the fact that they shouldn't have because it violates the principle of separation of powers. And I know that 535 people can't possibly know how to make all of these regulations. But violating the principle of separation of powers is not the solution. And this is why the Amish farmer had FDA agents draw guns on him for providing herd shares to people who crossed state lines with raw milk. The principle of the separation of powers was intended to protect us from the tyranny of our own government. Alas, the Amish farmer is not a isolated case. A much smaller government would help alleviate the workload of the Congress. So also would more legislators.

Mark S.

5:54PM PST on Nov 8, 2011

Roger,

Again, you are wrong. The legislature cannot ENFORCE the law. They are prevented from doing so by the separation of powers that you keep mentioning. It is the Executive branch that has the responsibility of enforcing the laws. And regulations are inferior to laws, and are given the power of law by the laws that give the department writing them the authority to enforce those laws. The reason for the different words is because of the different origin and level of authority.

5:50PM PST on Nov 8, 2011

(Continued)

And here is one of the laws passed by Congress which requires the EPA to make regulations dealing with the control of something under its scope, the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 U.S.C. §2601 et seq. (1976))

From the EPA webpage: "The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 provides EPA with authority to require reporting, record-keeping and testing requirements, and restrictions relating to chemical substances and/or mixtures. Certain substances are generally excluded from TSCA, including, among others, food, drugs, cosmetics and pesticides."

The complete text of the laws from the United States Code.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2010-title15/pdf/USCODE-2010-title15-chap53.pdf

SubChapter I, Section 2601 Findings, Policy, and Intent is the area that you are looking for.

5:47PM PST on Nov 8, 2011

Mark wrote: "Roger, Since you seem to not remember your government classes,... The legislature makes laws that state that something needs regulation, usually in response to populist demands or necessity....." I am well aware of that. But it is a habit of the legislative branch to assign to the executive branch regulation making powers that violates the principle of separation of powers, and it is not in the Constitution, to the best of my knowledge. "Regulations" are simply a long way to spell "laws".

5:40PM PST on Nov 8, 2011

(Continued)

Since this department is in charge of enforcing the law that the legislature has passed, it is formed under the executive branch. Congress has delegated authority to the department to enforce the laws and to publish and provide specific information and regulations dealing with that enforcement under the law.

Article I, Section 8, last sentence makes this even more explicit:
"To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

Let's take a "simple" example, the Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/laws/

Here is a direct quote from their website:
"A number of laws serve as EPA's foundation for protecting the environment and public health. However, most laws do not have enough detail to be put into practice right away. EPA is called a regulatory agency because Congress authorizes us to write regulations that explain the critical details necessary to implement environmental laws. In addition, a number of Presidential Executive Orders (EOs) play a central role in our activities."

5:37PM PST on Nov 8, 2011

Roger,

Since you seem to not remember your government classes,...

The legislature makes laws that state that something needs regulation, usually in response to populist demands or necessity. When they make those laws, they either assign responsibility to an existing department or create a new one. When assigned to an existing department, a new office or sub-department may be created to address the new laws. The new laws dealing with the department provide the framework and scope of responsibility, and almost always contain language out of necessity which provides enforcement powers to the department with respect to the laws, as well as the ability to create specific regulations for its employees as well as for those areas which included in the scope of the department. Limits on the regulations are also usually included. These regulations deal with the minutia and specifics of department and their jobs, and include things like documentation and training necessary for all the is affected by the department. And these regulations can often require highly specific and specialized knowledge of the subject area under regulation, knowledge that is far outside the information known to any Congressman.

Since this department is in charge of enforcing the law that the legislature has passed, it is formed under the executive branch. Congress has delegated authority to the department to enforce the laws and to publish and provide specific information and regulations de

9:35AM PST on Nov 8, 2011

It did not work in the copy that came back to me.

9:34AM PST on Nov 8, 2011

Oh, this time it worked:

(:->)

Roger here.

9:33AM PST on Nov 8, 2011

How does one create paragraphs? I am going to put the HTML code for a paragraph at the end of this sentence, and it the past no paragraph showed:

So let us see what happens. I put two of those codes with the pointer brackets with the "p" in between.