Corporate tax rate of negative 60 percent proof corporate taxes too high

As we all know from watching Fox News and listening to AM radio, America is currently being assaulted by the socialist revolutionaries of the Obama administration. Yes, welcome to the communist revolution, comrades, and witness the terrible suffering of corporations under this left-of-Lenin regime:

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This is the New York Times article that inspired the above

The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

An impressive increase in its tax benefit from the previous year

Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.

And, of course, GE has suffered terribly about this from the communists at left-wing MSNBC and NBC, right? Har har.

Asked about GE paying no taxes, Sen. Ron Johnson, the plutocrat who with his own wealth and the corporate money allowed into the political process by the Citizens United ruling was able to buy his way into Sen Feingold's seat, gave a zombie answer that corporate tax rates are too high. There is apparently no reality that can get in the way of the belief of our plutocrat class that they are being persecuted and victimized, all the while wealth continues to flow upwards into the hands of fewer and fewer and austerity measures are claimed as necessary and as a "shared sacrifice." And to claim that President Obama represents radical Marxist, anti-business forces is beyond laughable.

Since Obama was inaugurated, the Dow Jones has increased more than 50% -- from 8,000 to more than 12,000; the wealthiest recieved a massive tax cut; the top marginal tax rate was three times less than during the Eisenhower years and substantially lower than during the Reagan years; income and wealth inequality are so vast and rising that it is easily at Third World levels; meanwhile, "the share of U.S. taxes paid by corporations has fallen from 30 percent of federal revenue in the 1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009." During this same time period, the unemployment rate has increased from 7.7% to 8.9%; millions of Americans have had their homes foreclosed; and the number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by many millions, the largest number since the statistic has been recorded. Can you smell Obama's radical egalitarianism and Marxist anti-business hatred yet?

Then there are those whom Obama has empowered. His first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is a business-revering corporatist who made close to $20 million in 3 short years as an investment banker, while his second, Bill Daley, served for years as JP Morgan's Midwest Chairman. His Treasury Secretary is undoubtedly the most loyal and dedicated servant Wall Street has ever had in that position, while Goldman Sachs officials occupy so many key positions in his administration that a former IMF and Salomon Brothers executive condemned what he called "Goldman Sachs's seeming lock on high-level U.S. Treasury jobs." Obama's former OMB Director recently left to take a multi-million-dollar position with Citigroup. From the start, Obama's economic policies were shaped by the Wall Street-revering neo-liberal Rubinites who did so much to serve corporate America during the Clinton years. Meanwhile, the President's choice to head his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness -- General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt -- heads a corporation that "despite $14.2 billion in worldwide profits - including more than $5 billion from U.S. operations - [] did not owe taxes in 2010": an appointment the White House still defends.

And f.y.i., GE is able in part to avoid paying taxes thanks to the questionable efforts of its auditor KPMG. That would be the same KPMG who previously helped their clients short the United States government of at least 2.5 billion dollars.

But no worries, Congress helped kill ACORN. Sure they only received upwards of 50 million dollars in recent years and didn't misuse the money, but everyone knows that the poor and minorities are the most powerful and corrupting influences in American politics.

P.S.: I forgot to mention this

After not paying any taxes and making huge profits, ThinkProgress has learned that General Electric is expected to ask its nearly 15,000 unionized employees in the United States to make major concessions.

This year, 14 unions representing more than 15,000 workers will negotiate a new master contract with General Electric. Among the major concessions GE has signaled that it will ask of union workers is the elimination of a defined contribution benefit pension for new employees, a move the company has already implemented for its non-union salaried employees. Likewise, GE is signaling to the union that it will ask for the elimination of current health insurance plans in favor of lower quality health saving accounts, a move the company has already implemented for non-union salaried employees as well.

In addition, General Electric may ask some workers for a wage freeze.

You know, shared sacrifice, and all that.