[Think] War Profiteering (fwd)

[Fen Labalme]

--=-=-=

MoveOn is run by dome friends of mine in Berkeley.  They have a good site and
champion good causes.  Here's a recent note from them. -Fen



--=-=-=
Content-Type: message/rfc822
Content-Disposition: inline

Date: 30 Oct 2001 04:43:45 -0000
From: "Wes Boyd" <info@moveon.org>
Subject: War Profiteering
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Dear friend of MoveOn,

In this time of national crisis, amid calls for sacrifice, we're deeply
troubled by the choices of the Republican party's right-wing leadership.  
Here's their idea of an economic stimulus package*: 

  $1.4 billion for IBM
  $833 million for General Motors
  $671 million for General Electric
  $572 million for Chevron Texaco
  $254 million for Enron

This is war profiteering, and it's just plain wrong.  Yet the House has 
just approved it, on a virtual party line vote, ending the recent spirit
of cooperation in Congress.  Speak up with us before the Senate acts:

  http://www.moveon.org/warprofiteering/

Last week, while our nation was reeling from the Anthrax threat, the
House voted to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax on corporations.  
This law normally requires hugely profitable companies to pay at least 
some tax, no matter how many loopholes they can find.  Its repeal would
allow many companies to pay zero U.S. income tax in perpetuity - a loss 
of more than $12 billion in revenue next year alone.  

The repeal is retroactive, so companies would get rebates of all the 
Alternative Minimum Tax they've paid for the last 15 years.  The 
numbers above are a sampling of these rebates. 

The House also voted to allow corporations to store their profits 
overseas as a tax shelter.  That's right - this "stimulus" would 
actually take money _out_ of the U.S. economy.  It's backwards. 

The right approach to stimulus is to put more money in the hands of 
everyday people who need it most - by expanding unemployment insurance,
for example.  People living marginally will spend it quickly on consumer 
goods, so it circulates through the economy, benefiting everyone.  

Helping people would make economic sense.  Giving billions in tax 
breaks to America's biggest corporations doesn't.  

The Senate could vote on stimulus as early as this week.  Speak up at:

  http://www.moveon.org/warprofiteering/
  
Thank you.  We must all fight this together.

Sincerely,

- Wes Boyd
  MoveOn.org
  October 29th, 2001

* Source: Citizens for Tax Justice.  See our website for details.
__________
This is a message from MoveOn.org
If you wish to remove yourself from this list, please visit
our subscription management page at
http://www.moveon.org/subscrip/i.html?id=316-419782-OCckXnB8XnW6ym53DP5tZA


--=-=-=--