You Paid Taxes. Corporations Didn’t! Now Schools and Non-Profits Don’t Have Funding!

Corporations Force the Middle Class to Pay for Everything

A very common belief is that our country is struggling financially. If you asked a random individual, they’d probably agree that we simply don’t have enough money to fund the schools, fix the roads, feed the homeless, save the environment, provide healthcare, and everything else that’s needed.

In fact, we’ve accepted cut-backs as normal, especially when it comes to education. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, public investment in K-12 schools has declined dramatically in a number of states over the last decade. In 2015, 29 states were still providing less total school funding than they were in 2008!

So, what’s been cut due to this lack of funding? Band. Home Economics. Field Trips. Class sizes have gone up. Many sports programs have been canceled. So have afterschool education and activities.  Tenured teachers have been forced into early retirement. All at the expense of our children!

Education isn’t all that’s been cut.  While Americans are great at donating money and time to non-profits, our charity isn’t enough. Non-profits rely on Federal funding. In fact, about 80% of the typical non-profit budget comes from federal funding.

Did you know that, according to the Center for Non-Profits, Trump’s 2017 Tax Law cut funding to non-profits by 13 billion a year!

That’s less money for environmental programs, homeless programs, hospice, Meals on Wheels, SNAP, TNIF, and hundreds of other nonprofits.

The question is why are all these essential programs seeing the budget cut?  It’s not because America is broke.

IT’S BECAUSE OF CORPORATE GREED!!!!

This country has PLENTY of MONEY!!!!

Donald Trump lied to the American people when he said he needed to make these cuts because America was spending too much. The truth is he instead focused on tax cuts for the rich to bolster his own profits.

The belief this country is broke is TOTALLY WRONG. In fact, never in history has this country had MORE TAXABLE INCOME that’s not being taxed.

According to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, when Donald Trump passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, he lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. He also created massive tax loopholes. As a result, in 2018, 60 US corporations reported that they owed NO TAXES. Twice as many as 2017!

For example, Amazon made 10.8 billion in profits in 2018. Not only did they not pay the over 2 billion dollars that they owed, they actually claimed 128 million! Guess who paid that 128 million? You, me, and every other person who actually paid taxes! We paid Amazon to profit from us.

It gets worse. As I said, 60 corporations didn’t pay taxes. Here are some names you’ll recognize:

Netflix
Chevron
Eli Lilly
Deere and Co.
Delta Airlines
General Motors
FirstEnergy
Prudential Financial
Honeywall International
Halliburton
Whirlpool
IBM
Goodyear Tire
Occidental Petroleum

These 60 corporations made 79 billion in pre-tax income. With a 21% corporate tax rate, they were supposed to pay 16.4 billion in taxes. But, like Amazon, they took advantage of Trump’s loopholes and write-offs. Instead of paying what they owed, they instead claimed a net corporate tax rebate of 4.3 billion. (Center for Public Integrity)
Overall, revenue from corporate taxes dropped 39% in 2018 from 297 billion to 204 billion. That’s 93 billion in lost taxes!!!

Want money to fix schools, save the environment, feed the homeless, etc? Hold corporations accountable! Make them pay their taxes!