Corporate Tax Rates down to average 12.1%

I pulled this from my daily email from Thom Hartmann that says all that needs to be said about the horrors of corporate tax rates. Paul Ryan didn't think we'd see this...:

Pay no attention to the lies already coming from the Right - corporations are paying less in taxes in America than they've paid in 40 years. According to the Congressional Budget Office - despite American corporations making enormous profits last year - their second best in a generation - they paid on average only 12.1% in federal taxes. That's far below the 35% corporate tax rate that Conservatives claim is crippling business in America. At 12.1%, American corporations are paying the lowest taxes in the entire developed world.

It's also a staggering drop off since the last quarter century - between 1987 and 2008 - when corporations paid on average a 25.6% corporation tax rate. When corporations and the very, very wealthy aren't paying their fair share in taxes, then working people have to pick up the slack. That's exactly what's happened in recent years - and one reason why the United States has one of the highest level of wealth inequality in the developed world - and why the middle class is disappearing right in front of our eyes.-Thom