But - no - that's not what they are writing about.
Ever heard the old adage
Poking at a Hornets nest
Ever been told
Don’t do that?
Well - - - -
As the Right-wing reports it
A new report released by the American Legislative Exchange
Council looks at widespread state government favoritism through the tax code,
in which specific individuals and businesses are treated unequally and given
tax carve-outs.
, which according to ALEC, distorts the market and should be
replaced with a simpler and more competitive tax code.
ALEC’s report arguing, “Specialized carve-outs in the tax
code are distortionary and ineffective at best, and examples of government
cronyism at worst. These carve-outs run contrary to the principles of sound tax
policy and the basic fairness of a level playing field for all businesses.”
Oh my - - - -
Snips from ALEC’s report
The Unseen Costs of Tax Cronyism: Favoritism and Foregone
Growth
And
Of course – it has a piece of legislation at the end of it –
only one piece of legislation, although I’m sure there are probably a dozen,
based on past ALEC history.
(It's on the ALEC webpage - you can find it there - I won't link to it)
Seems fitting that ALEC's new groundbreaking report would have the word "cronyism" in it the week before the annual meeting of state legislators and corporate lobbyists.
Cronyism
ALEC writing about Cronyism
Oh, my - - - -
ALEC
Legislators
Epitomize
Cronyism
But - no - that's not what they are writing about.
“policymakers can embrace cronyism by providing certain businesses and
industries with special targeted tax breaks and tax carve-outs.”
And by God – ALEC legislators do that every day!
But - no - that's not what they are writing about.
They go on to say that the tax cronyism (that most ALEC
legislators have been practicing for decades) leads to
"precipitating tax rate increases"
and
of course
"subverts market outcomes"
Oh, no - the 1% and the market are at risk - - Oh No!
But the biggest complaint ALEC makes in this report is about
the potential for public corruption.
Now let me get this straight –
the organization that puts legislators behind closed doors
to meet secretly
with corporate lobbyists –
meetings which by the way are totally funded by the corporations that the
lobbyists work for –
is now worried about public corruption.
Really? REALLY?
Get real – there’s more to this story that we won’t know
about for awhile yet.
Cronyism—the perversion of sound economic policy to create a
system that benefits one firm or industry at the expense of all
others—is a serious public policy problem.
ALEC wrote that – sounds pretty much what they do every day
But - no - that's not what they are writing about.
"the perversion of sound economic policy"
is done everyday, in every way - by "perverted" ALEC legislators
"serious public policy problem"
should be on every piece of ALEC literature
ALEC the serious public policy problem.
ALEC should own that phrase everyday, in every way
But later in the report ALEC re-writes their mumble jumble
- they like to do that to confuse people
- confusing people makes spreading mistruths easier.
You see, ALEC reports suck you in at the beginning of the report with happy crap and then hope you don't bother to read to the end - where the real evil is. And most idiots - don't read the whole thing - so the happy crap on the first couple pages becomes the news stories.
Later in the report
Cronyism is the substitution of political influence for free
markets. It comes about when government has a lot of power over private- sector
decisions and when the government officials in power have great discretion over
how to use it.
Oh, my – the real issue is now evident
has a lot of power
over private- sector decisions and when the government officials in power have
great discretion over how to use it
Oh, boy – ALEC corporations must be pissed about
something. But we won’t know what that
something is until ALEC releases their next batch of malicious legislation.
Evidently a couple of their corporate members didn’t get the
tax breaks and subsidies they wanted
SO
ALEC to the rescue – doing what they are paid millions of
dollars each year to do for their corporate members
protect the profits of corporate members and
this time they do it with a new report on how unfair
the
current system is
new legislation to
follow.
It gets even more bizarre in way when you consider that
ALEC is claiming that the current systems is unfair when
ALEC has been controlling the state legislatures in many states for many years.
BUT
The story doesn’t end there.
“In an ideal world, each and every state would publish an
expenditure report every year. This is not the case at all, and it was pretty
difficult trying to put this together,” ALEC’s William Freeland told reporters
on a call Thursday.
Pretty difficult to put together – eh?
Nope!
ENTER
GoodJobsFirst.org
A growing number of state and local governments are
disclosing which companies they are giving tax breaks and other subsidies in
the name of job creation and economic development. Yet much of that information
is being disseminated through hard-to-find reports and web pages. SUBSIDY
TRACKER brings together the information from those far-flung sources--along
with unpublished data obtained through open records requests--to create the
first national search engine for economic development subsidies.
SUBSIDY
TRACKER brings together the information from those far-flung sources
The left does - what the right-wing finds difficult to do.
SOOOOOO
Let's take a look at tax breaks and other subsidies,
that the left is capable of documenting in a searchable database found at Subsidy Tracker.
Past and Present ALEC Private sector Board members
ALTRIA
State Subsidy Total: $43,083,398
AT&T
State Subsidy Total: $58,628,721
DIAGEO – a British owned company
State Subsidy Total:
$40,012,492
EXXON
State Subsidy Total: $340,271,846
GLAXOSMITHKLINE
State Subsidy Total: $25,792,840
INTUIT
State Subsidy Total: $1,618,107
JOHNSON &
JOHNSON
State Subsidy Total:
$34,669,906
KOCH INDUSTRIES
State Subsidy Total:
$89,172,767
KRAFT FOODS
State Subsidy Total: $15,205,849
PEABODY
ENERGY
State Subsidy Total:
$278,095,289
PFIZER
State Subsidy Total:
$201,959,919
STATE FARM INSURANCE
State Subsidy Total:
$24,050
UNITED PARCEL SERVICE
State Subsidy Total:
$133,306,952
WALMART
State Subsidy Total:
$149,942,595
ONE and half BILLION DOLLARS
And that’s just a small piece of the pie
It is reported that WalMart gets
$7.8 BILLION in tax breaks and subsidies
Needy Walmart – only makes $16 BILLION IN PROFIT
Looking at the numbers above - there is a caution
This list is only 14, yes only 14 - of the over 300+ corporate
members of ALEC.
AND this doesn’t account for items from the Federal
government
ONE and half BILLION DOLLARS tax breaks and other subsidies
that the left is capable of documenting
in a searchable database found at Subsidy Tracker.
For fourteen ALEC corporations
Fourteen.
It was really handy for these corporations to have ALEC
legislators in their pocket when they needed them
Take my word – or don’t – that absolutely nothing good will
come out of this report.
It takes a mental contortionist to try and figure out what
is in the sick, twisted brain of American Legislative Exchange Council members
and staff.
It takes a mental contortionist to try and figure out what the outcome of this newest ALEC report will be.
The timing of the release of the report leads me to believe they are going to be
pushing this at the ALEC Dallas meeting next week
where your state legislator will be meeting privately
– behind
closed doors – with Corporate lobbyists
that want tax breaks and other subsidies
and then
your ALEC legislator will bring some nice sounding bill back to your state about
tax cronyism
– that helps no one except ALEC corporate members.
ALEC
Legislators
Epitomize
Cronyism
#VoteNo2ALEC
