(from The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles)
". . . The (New York) Times editorial (defending Cornelius Vanderbilt and the question of railroad monopolies) introduces the second current of anxiety surrounding railroads: the corruption of government. The tales of bribery that flowed out of Albany reinforced stereotypes of public officials on the take, acting as if they were retainers of wealthy corporations, not representatives of the people. After Jay Gould took over as president of the Erie, he allied the railroad explicitly with the Tweed ring, naming 'Boss" Tweed himself to the board, along with his close associate Peter Sweeney. . ."
(Source: By Matt Stoller, Naked Capitalism | News Analysis - http://truth-out.org/news/item/13648-eight-corporate-subsidies-in-the-fiscal-cliff-bill-from-goldman-sachs-to-disney-to-nascar) Corporate CEOs expressed to the administration their agreement with modest increases of tax rates on the wealthy to tackle the deficit problem. In exchange for their support, they wanted “tax extenders” amounting to about $205 billion in tax breaks to be included in the fiscal cliff bill. Few political operatives paid attention to this part of the bill. A few hundred billion dollars of tax expenditures is a BIG deal to overlook.
And what about our popular media? Talk about overlooking!
And here are the winners. . .
1) NASCAR - Anyone who builds a racetrack and associated facilities will get tax breaks on it. This is projected to cost $43 million over two years.
2) Railroads - Tax credits will be available to certain railroads for maintaining their tracks. The value of this one, around $165 million a year.
3) Disney - Will be allowed extension of special expensing rules for certain film and television productions. According to the Joint Tax Committee, was projected to cost $150 million for 2010 and 2011.
4) Mining Companies - Will get tax incentives to buy safety equipment and train their employees on mine safety.
5) Goldman Sachs Headquarters – "tax exempt financing for York Liberty Zone,” which rather than going to small businesses affected after 9/11 (originally intended). Michael Bloomberg actually thought the program was excessive at $1.6 billion in tax free financing for its new massive headquarters through Liberty Bonds.
6) $9 billion Off-shore financing loophole for banks –Basically allows American banks and manufacturers to engage in certain lending practices without having to pay taxes on income earned from it. This is well supported by GE, Caterpillar, and JP Morgan.
7) Tax credits for foreign subsidiaries – Extends the “Look-through treatment of payments between related CFCs under foreign personal holding company income rules.” The cost was $1.5 billion from 2010 and 2011, and the US Chamber loves it. It’s a provision that allows US multinationals to not pay taxes on income earned by companies they own abroad.
8) Bonus Depreciation, R&D Tax Credit – Projected to cost $8 billion for 2010 and 2011, and the depreciation provisions were projected to cost about $110 billion for those two years, with some of that made up in later years.
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