GE’s Motto – “Imagination At Work”: Not Eligible for Congress

The public ire over GE’s non-tax bill illustrates a much too prevalent example of the American public’s understanding of reality. They get their hackles up about some issue and go charging off half-cocked to battle the injustice or situation that they believe is just down-right un-American. Fortunately, the public is encouraged by the news media which reports on events by providing just the facts (well, in many cases the facts) and not worrying about any assessment or explanation of the event and what brought it about. So we have the outrage and demands for action without any comprehension of what produced the flammable conditions that a simple fact ignited into a media-relations firestorm for GE.

Now what exactly is a large portion of the public foaming about? These hyper-active attention deficit disordered individuals are incensed that a large international American corporation will not pay any taxes in 2011 on their 2010 $14.2 billion of profit. Some of them may feel abused because they have to pay taxes on a lot less money than GE made; assuming that they are not in the approximately 40% of US tax-payers who do not pay federal income taxes. [The term tax-payer here clearly is a grouping that only indicates a possibility not an actual fact.]

Based on this non-payment by GE, there are public calls for investigations and for the removal of GE’s CEO from the chairmanship of the President’s Jobs Creation advisory panel. But what has GE or it’s CEO done that is wrong or illegal? Unless some new facts, not presently in evidence, are brought to light neither GE nor its management has done anything illegal nor acted in any way that is not in accordance with the law. In fact, GE was operating just as Congress had intended. It was not GE who wrote the tax code. It was not GE who determined what was a fair and balanced approach to applying the tax code to corporations. It was Congress.

Congress creates the federal laws and rules for taxing everyone and everything in America. They develop the policies and programs that help adjust and tune the tax code so that we encourage investments that will benefit the pubic, the economy and the nation; that will encourage job creation; and that will insure that the tax-burden is fairly borne by all.

So shouldn’t we be irate and ‘mad as hell’ at Congress? Isn’t this just another example of how Congress will take any task and achieve a complete state of snafu? But not to fear, Congress is diligently at work to cut the budget and have their flash-light like intensity semi-focused on that endeavor. We can all rest in comfort that Congress will provide us with a national budget that will meet all the standard criteria to reach fubar status.

We have Senators and Representatives who are absolutely sure that the only problem is that the maximum corporate tax rate is too high, and if we just lower it that all will be well with the world. What a shame that Congress nor the public hasn’t connected the tax code to Congress encouraging corporations to move jobs overseas, to Congress promoting corporations stashing profits in other nations, and to Congress undermining the overall US economy. Great job Congress! Keep up the good work at the budget cutting; I wouldn’t want you to spend any time or effort on fixing your errors that have brought the nation to its sorry state.

I guess the adage about fools is not only applicable to their rhetoric but also to their ability to serve the public. Not only is it better to remain silent and be thought a fool then to speak and confirm it; but it is better to pass no laws and be considered incompetent then to pass laws and prove it.