Might be a hint at what's in the BoA WikiLeaks docs

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/26/main-street-tax-cheats/

REPORT: You Have More Money In Your Wallet Than Bank Of America Pays In Federal Taxes

In an interview with In These Times, Carl Gibson, the founder of US Uncut, which is organizing some of today’s UK-inspired massive demonstrations against tax dodgers, explains that while ordinary Americans are being asked to sacrifice, major corporations continue to use the rigged tax code to avoid paying any federal taxes at all. As he says, if you have “one dollar” in your wallet, you’re paying more than the “combined income tax liability of GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and the Bank of America“:

[Gibson] explains, “I have one dollar in my wallet. That’s more than the combined income tax liability of GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and the Bank of America. That means somebody is gaming the system.”

[...]

 

[gregb]

It is funny how nobody here seems interested in UK/US/Canada uncut. It seems to be spreading faster than you can say "tea party" and I'd imagine it will be a huge voting block in elections. First of all it has been wildly successful in the UK and still growing fast. Then, people everywhere are seeing what can be accomplished by just showing up (Egypt, et al).

I'm predicting that US Uncut will grab a lot of people from the Tea Party "movement" as well as from a lot of other entities, maybe even the Ron Paul grassroots support. I see there ideally being an "overlap" rather than being just one or the other (speaking specifically of the Ron Paul people). From what I've been reading they throw around some stuff like "flat 10% tax" for example.

There also seems to be some "anarchist support" (one of many articles with an anarchist slant). They seem to be very much a student thing - Ron Paul is a rock star on campuses.

I sort of agree with Hunter S Thompson from the Aspen campaigns when he decided that getting out the people who didn't vote (what he called the "freak vote") was way more important than trying to attract voters from the other camp. My guess is that US Uncut offers a wide open path into the typically non-voting population. Throw in the fun of participating in a flash mob but turn it to the voting booth and I could easily see many millions of new votes being cast.

Once (US) mainstream media starts or rather is forced to report their "Action Days" - there is about as much chance of Uncut getting fair treatment of that as them giving Ron Paul an even break - we will be able to see what the real deal by seeing which way they slant things (probably the opposite, they'll probably label them socialist to try and stop Ron Paul and Uncut from joining forces in an election).

In the UK the sworn enemy of UK Uncut is Rupert Murdoch so there seems to be at least one enemy in common.

Surprisingly, the Daily Mail, Britain’s most right-wing newspaper, became one of the movement’s most sympathetic allies.....

The only part of the media that attacked UK Uncut outright was, predictably, Rupert Murdoch’s empire. This isn’t surprising given that his company, News International, is one of the world’s most egregious tax dodgers, contributing almost nothing to the U.S. or UK treasuries. His tabloid the Sun accused UK Uncut of being a “group of up to 30,000 anarchists” scheming “to bring misery to millions of Christmas shoppers,” with plans to “set off stink bombs, leave mouldy cheese in clothes and rack up huge sales at tills and then refuse to pay.”

Progressive Tea Party

 

[silverhandorder]

@ above poster

You trolling?

 

[gregb]

@ above poster
You trolling?

I'm not sure. What makes you say that? I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is and if I support it. It just seems that it is too strong of a movement to be ignored - so I try to figure it out.

I'd don't get the "trolling" part though - I've searched on these forums for uncut and there is basically no conversation concerning it. Are we studiously ignoring it? Does everyone but me already know "the truth"? I just see another "grassroots" movement and I start to wonder where the common ground is rather than just despise them because they aren't me, or in my group.

 

[madfoot]

I sympathize with tax dodgers, but not corporate tax dodgers. This Uncut movement sounds interesting.

 

[sevin]

hxxp://www.ukuncut.org.uk/cuts/government

From what I can tell, the Uncut movement wants to tax the rich more instead of cutting government spending.

I agree that the banks should pay their fair share of taxes, but we still need to cut government spending drastically, not just collect more taxes.

 

[fisharmor]

Well, we have 27 more days before it's not "early 2011" anymore ( I figure 2nd quarter doesn't exactly fit the definition of "early" ) so unless something is rotten, we should be getting all of it soon!

 

[Angel]

hxxp://www.ukuncut.org.uk/cuts/government

From what I can tell, the Uncut movement wants to tax the rich more instead of cutting government spending.

I agree that the banks should pay their fair share of taxes, but we still need to cut government spending drastically, not just collect more taxes.

The first time I heard about US Uncut was about a week ago, when they were having a protest in Philadelphia in from of the new Comcast Building, which is now the largest skyscraper in the city. Their reason for the demonstration:

"For locating its Headquarters in Center City, Comcast was given 42.75 million dollars from the State, and pays no taxes for 10 years. The construction firm that built the Headquarters, Liberty Property Trust, received 30 million dollars from the State. These subsidies and tax cuts could save the AdultBasic program that Governor Corbett has gutted, which provided over 41,000 low-income Pennsylvanians with health insurance."

Now, I'm not certain how many jobs were created by building the new Comcast center, given that Comcast was already been a Philadelphia-based company. I'm sure that many construction jobs were created to build the skyscraper, but that money was from the state, not Comcast. Essentially, the state government paid a construction firm to build "free housing" for a billion-dollar company and exempt them from paying any taxes for 10 years. In fact, any businesses that relocated to the building would also be exempt from paying taxes. From Wikipedia:

"Liberty Property Trust hoped to get the One Pennsylvania Plaza site designated a Keystone Opportunity Improvement Zone (KOZ). A KOZ was designed to encourage development in poor, blighted areas by exempting the tenants of the building from all state and local taxes. Designating One Pennsylvania Plaza a KOZ was supported by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who said it was important to keep corporations within the city. At the time, many of Philadelphia's big employers' leases, including Comcast's, were set to expire, and the employers were considering the possibility of moving out of the city and state. Rendell also said allowing Comcast to enlarge its headquarters by moving into One Pennsylvania Plaza could attract other corporate headquarters to the city. However, other Center City building owners, including Comcast's landlord at Centre Square, HRPT Properties Trust, were opposed to the plan. They said giving the tower the KOZ designation would give it an unfair advantage because Liberty Property Trust could charge above market rents since the tax breaks would offset the cost for tenants. The group believed tenants attracted to One Pennsylvania Plaza because of the tax breaks would cause more vacancies in other Center City skyscrapers. In early 2004, Center City had a vacancy rate of 12.8 percent."

Now, sure, initially you may say that it's great that they don't get to pay taxes. Taxes suck. But all of the other companies in the city DO pay taxes, unless they have cut a sweet deal with the state, which gives Comcast and all other companies in that building an unfair competitive advantage which would not exist in an otherwise free market. This is an example of corporate welfare, or the government manipulating the marketplace, picking its own winners over other companies.