It has long been known that around 2/3  of all corporations doing
business in the U.S. pay no income tax on their proceeds earned here. These corporations account for 1.1 trillion dollars in sales generated in the U.S. Yet, all the Bush administration and some of the Neo-Cons in here are concerned about are more tax cuts for the wealthy which of course includes many of these same corporations.The tax cuts are so ludricrous in these cases because as stated in the immortal words of Billy Preston "nothing from nothing, leaves nothing".

       But as galling as this is, it pales by example to what the in-famous Iraqi contractor, KBR, is doing.As you probably know KBR won a no-bid contract in 2002 to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and provide support services for our troops.The quality of their suspect work aside, they are paid by our tax dollars, thru the Defense Department to the tune of approximately 20 billion dollars which is about 8 times the amount of its nearest competitor. But lo and behold the amount they pay in income, Medicare, Social Security taxes is 0.They have avoided hundreds of millions in taxes and how? By setting up shell companies in the Cayman Islands one of which is called Service Employees Int. which supposedly has 20,000 workers in Iraq. I dont think that the entire Cayman Islands contains 20,000 people and if they did the islands would be deserted with all of them in Iraq. Heather Browne,a spokeswoman for KBR has acknowledged that the "phony"Cayman companies were set up to reduce tax obligations of the company and its employees. That was certainly a successful strategy,wasnt it.

          Obama, has said that he will eliminate the loopholes that allow these kinds of travesties to continue. With a real Dem majority now in both house, the Neo-Cons should not be able to thwart his efforts as they have during the past 8 years.And while they are at it maybe they can get a restitution out of Mr.Halliburton, KBR Cheney as part of his sentence for tax fraud and other shenanigans.And the next time someone asks how the cost for universal health insurance can be borne, this would be a good place to start.

         All of this information was gleaned from the GAO and the Boston Globe article written and researched by Farah Stockman in her report of March 6, 2008. Happy Thanksgiving to  all ,including the real Cayman Islanders. I hope this didnt give you indigestion like it did me when I read it.