A comprehensive new study that profiles 280 of America’s most profitable companies finds that 78 of them paid no federal income tax in at least one of the last three years. Thirty companies enjoyed a negative income tax rate over the three year period, despite combined pre-tax profits of $160 billion. These are among the findings in “Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010,” released today by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

“These 280 corporations received a total of nearly $223 billion in tax subsidies,” said Robert McIntyre, Director at Citizens for Tax Justice and the report’s lead author. “This is wasted money that could have gone to protect Medicare, create jobs and cut the deficit.” 

“Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010” is the tenth comprehensive publication on corporate taxes from Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The two groups released their first major study on the federal income taxes that large, profitable American corporations pay on their U.S. pretax profits in 1984. 

Contrary to absurd claims that Rex Sinquefield's tax fantasies will make it so "you and me and everybody can have more money to spend, now and forever," the Everything Tax, supported by Peter Kinder and Steve Tilley, is "a loser for nearly everyone." 

They want to eliminate the tax source which brings in 65 percent of Missouri’s revenue, claiming unconvincingly that getting rid of the individual income tax will cause new businesses to flock to Missouri and produce enough new revenues to close a $3 billion budget gap.

Under their plan, consumers would pay a 5.5 percent sales tax on food, which currently is exempt. Many services would be newly subjected to a sales tax, which in most cases would be capped at 10 percent, with the state entitled to 7 percent of that amount. The state would receive more than half of the tax for its general fund and dedicated purposes. Over time, some local governments could be forced to reduce their existing sales taxes.

Instead of inhabiting a low-tax utopia, most Missourians would experience a higher cost of living and decimated state services.

Republicans have been pushing back all day long with cookie-cutter press releases regarding the 15 "jobs" bills they say have been languishing in the House and haven't been taken up in the Senate.

Let's take a closer look at the "Faux 15" as they've been termed.  Are they really jobs bills?  No.  They're wolves in sheep's clothing.  Take a look:

GOP’s Budget to End Medicare (GOP Budget for Fiscal Year 2012, H.Con.Res. 34) – Instead of creating jobs, this House GOP budget is estimated to destroy 1.7 million jobs by 2014, according to economist Mark Zandi; ends Medicare, increasing seniors’ health costs by more than $6,000 and throwing them on the mercy of the insurance companies; and protects tax breaks for Big Oil, millionaires and billionaires, and companies that ship jobs overseas.

You're not going to believe this, but I have it good authority that Republican Photo ID bills have absolutely nothing to do with their stated purpose (i.e. fraud), and are entirely about skewing elections in favor of Republicans by creating hurdles for otherwise eligible voters to cast ballots. 

The Joplin Globe, however, takes SOS candidate Shane Schoeller at his word when he says he's super duper concerned with fraud he can't find, but reaches the same conclusion: Schoeller's photo ID bill is bad news, and disenfranchises Missourians.  From a new editorial: 

[Schoeller's proposal] would go a long way to further disenfranchise voters.

Voter ID has been a contentious subject in Missouri. The state Supreme Court struck down a photo ID law in 2006, ruling that it infringed on the fundamental right to vote granted by the Missouri Constitution...

If Missouri legislators can show us instances of voter fraud in our own state, then we would gladly review our position. Until then, we don’t think photo ID should be implemented.

KMOX reports that Dave Spence is no longer asking for Peter Kinder's permission to end Peter Kinder's career: 

Businessman Dave Spence, the President and CEO of Alpha Packaging,  in St. Louis County, says he is “strongly considering” a run for governor — whether or not Kinder runs.

“A businessman and somebody from the outside who is not part of the system might have a better chance of getting something done in Jefferson City than the same formula that keeps regurgitating itself,” Spence said...

“I’m willing to self-fund part of it to at least be credible,” Spence said, “and then from there I am convinced I can raise the money.  I think the business community would respond en masse .  I’ve already raised verbally some money from about five phone calls that told me that people believe I can do the job.”

Spence says he will make a final decision on whether to run in about 60 days.

Image credit: Ladue News

Earlier this afternoon, a number of concerned citizens, labor leaders, business and academic experts came together in St. Louis to discuss the growing jobs crisis in our country as well as how we as a nation can put Missourians back on the job.

At the heart of the roundtable discussion was call for our elected officials to pass the American Jobs Act.  Including a number of initiatives that have broad bipartisan support, the American Jobs Act has provisions that will assist Missourians in finding work, paying the bills and stimulating the economy.

Gary Elliott of the Eastern Missouri Laborers' District Council had a crystal clear message for Missouri's congressional leaders:

[T]he American Jobs Act should be passed as well as the Highway Bill. We need both. The first responders and teachers included in the jobs bill are just what this country needs. We have to invest in our community or improvements are never going to come to fruition and the jobs crisis will continue.

Repeatedly, speakers reinforced that investing in infrastructure - such as repairing our crumbling bridges and roads, putting first responders such as police and firefighters back to work, and ensuring teachers are in the classroom with the resources they need - would allow for our economy to recover by putting money in the wallets of workers who will in turn put money back in their communities.

Unfortunately, even while Missourians were sending a message loud and clear to legislative leaders, Senator Roy Blunt yet again voted against infrastructure investment and jobs by voting no on the Rebuild America Jobs Act.  By a vote of 51 to 49 with all republicans voting no, Blunt again showed he is willing to vote to protect tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires while leaving Missouri's workers out in the cold. 

On Wednesday, November 2nd, fifty Sierra Club members took part in a Green Jobs Tour to view a business in northeast Kansas City that supplies parts for wind turbines, solar generators, and electric car plug-ins.  The plant, Milbank Manufacturing, expects to hire 57 new employees to support its expanded clean energy products.  Workers at Milbank are represented by the United Steelworkers Union (USW) Local 13. 

“Milbank Manufacturing proves the potential for renewable energy to create jobs in Missouri,” explains John Hickey, Sierra Club Chapter Director.  “It is time for the State of Missouri to expand our use of renewable energy.  We know that renewable energy means cleaner air and healthier communities.  Now we are showing that it also means good-paying, clean energy jobs.” 

Emil Ramirez, Assistant to the Director for USW District 11 continues “Our members understand that investing in clean energy technology means more good jobs right here in Kansas City.  That is why the USW, along with other groups including the Sierra Club, are part of the BlueGreen Alliance.  This tour provided a chance for more local citizens to see this potential with their own eyes.” 

The Senate will hold a vote later today on the Rebuild America Jobs Act which would create nearly 2 million jobs, decrease the tax burden for millions of workers by extending the payroll tax cut which has broad bipartisan support across the nation with 58% of republicans supporting an extension and is something republicans in congress have supported in the past.

The Rebuild America Jobs Act would also put 400,000 teachers back to work in the classroom, encourage the hiring of America's heroes by giving a $5,600 tax break to small businesses who hire unemployed veterans, and puts hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job modernizing 35,000 schools across the country.

This will be the third vote in as many weeks in the senate on putting Americans back to work.  Republicans have previously voted against the jobs bill and the portions of it, instead continuing to work to increase tax breaks for the wealthiest among us.  While America's roads, bridges and schools continue to crumble, the rich have been doing just fine - more than fine, actually.  The rich have seen their incomes skyrocket why the average American worker hasn't seen an increase in takehome pay since Reagan was president.

Continuing tax breaks for the rich won't create jobs, but the republicans know this.  The GOP would rather sabotage the economy than allow President Obama a victory.  But Americans see through this.

Today, Senate Republicans have a choice: put hundreds of thousands - millions! - of American workers back on the job, or continue to protect tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.

Will Roy Blunt vote for a jobs bill that puts Missourians back to work?  Maybe the third time's a charm.

Stop the presses! Congress has apparently solved the jobs crisis, reduced unemployment to 0%, ended global warming, brought all of our troops home and achieved world peace!  Beacuse of the overnight success of solving all the world's problems, they have spare time to do things like pass resolutions regarding our national motto.

Wait.  You're telling me unemployment is still above 9%?  And we have troops around the world?  Are you sure global warming is still real?  No world peace?  I'm crushed.  I'm not sure I can go on with this entry.  I'll let Congressman Cleaver take it from here:

Friends, obviously we are a Nation Under God. It has been our national motto since 1956, and as a minister, I needed no reminding. It is my personal motto as well. My vote on H.Con.Res. 13, a non-binding resolution that carries no force of law, was a stand on principle. This resolution was brought to the Floor at a time when our nation’s economy is in deep peril and our constituents are depending on us to create jobs – not to reaffirm mottos. We need to be working for the people in our districts, in our states and in our country on real legislation that can help put them back to work right now, help keep them in their homes right now, and help them feed their children right now. And yes – In God We Trust – and In God I Trust.

Can I get an Amen?

Ron Calzone is worried that "a few patriots...have been suckered" by our posts on Ed Martin's most recent failure.  By "suckered," I think he means "made aware of  Martin's unethical and radical brands of politics." 

Ed Martin is trying to find votes for his flailing Congressional campaign with fringe Missouri Right to Life supporters:

In my role as president of Missouri Roundtable for Life, I have seen attacks on life in the Missouri legislature but nothing like this [MOSIRA]. To see Jay Nixon sign such a law is infuriating, though unsurprising given he would not even sign a ban on partial birth abortion. To see him sign a bill with Republican support is shocking. The Republicans who sent this bill to Jay Nixon are betraying years of pro-life efforts.

Former GOP Congressman and current Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is increasingly frustrated with his party's refusal to address the jobs crisis facing the country.  In a broad interview with The Daily Beast, Secretary LaHood takes republicans to task on a number of issues and their refusal to focus on the economy and jobs and instead work to do everything in their power to defeat President Obama.

“Republicans made a decision right after the election—don’t  give Obama any victories. The heck with putting people to work, because we can score points.”

With hundreds, if not thousands, of bridges across the United States being labeled structurally deficient, LaHood doesn't understand why republicans continue to block much needed infrastructure spending.

Republicans are expected to maintain their wall of opposition to a new round of stimulus spending on infrastructure. The infrastructure bill would put thousands of people to work, says LaHood, “but because of their own personal political feelings against the president, they don’t want to hand him a victory.”

Securing our bridges.  Putting thousdands of Missourians and Americans back to work.  Stimulating the economy.  These are all things republicans continually refuse to do, all in the name of defeating President Obama.  The GOP should be ashamed of themselves.

Six minutes of Cynthia:

via MoveOn.org

Not wanting to be left out of the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires conversation, Rick Perry came out with his own extraordinarily regressive tax plan, one that you can choose to opt out of if you really want to remain under the current tax structure.  It's essentially a 20% flat tax.  No more confusing 9-9-9 plan, just a simple 20%.

As you can probably imagine, Perry's tax plan disproportionately affects the poor and middle class, essentially RAISING taxes on those who can least afford it while giving a massive tax break to the super rich.

And of course we've got the chart (after the jump) to show you just exactly how regressive Perry's plan for our tax structure is.

Politico's Dave Catanese this morning:

Republicans now have a serious alternative to Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder. Wealthy St. Louis packaging executive Dave Spence told POLITICO this month he would jump into the race “with two feet” if Kinder bows out. Aside from being a donor, Spence’s political experience is nil, but the Republican Governors Association was intrigued enough to take a meeting. Meanwhile, Kinder’s fundraising ebbed during the third quarter, with the undeclared Republican spending more than he raised.

No word yet on why Catanese ignored the burgeoning Draft Ed Martin movement.

Huntsman hits Romney.  AGAIN.  Personally, I'm looking forward to more of this sort of thing.  It's refreshing to see people calling Mittens out on his ridiculous, daily flip-flops. 

We can all agree that Republicans failed Missourians during the special session.  Failed to create jobs.  Failed to keep their word.  Failed to be the leaders they were elected to be.

But if Speaker Steve Tilley gets his wish, all of us will forget that the Republicans couldn't do much more than fight with each other at the expense of Missouri taxpayers.  He'd really like you to be distracted by something else.

In an effort to draw the public's attention away from republicans' failings, Tilley is making a big to-do over asking Missouri's auditor to investigate the collapse of the Mamtek deal in Moberly.

But get this, Moberly's own representative, Randy Asbury (R), has asked Tilley to back down.  If Tilley's request for an audit were approved, it wouldn't be the first investigation into the Mamtek dealings.  It wouldn't even be the second.  Or third, or fourth.  If the Auditor is asked, per Tilley's request to the governor, to investigate the Mamtek situation, it would join four other investigations already underway by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Missouri Attorney General, and two legislative committees.

Asbury himself says it best:

If Moberly is left alone, Asbury wrote, it can solve the problems. Instead, the city “has been a political pawn in the midst of a media-frenzy,” draining the effort to find a new user for the factory.

“I do not fear investigations; however, I do question how many are necessary to complete the task,” he said.