Corporations pollute our water and foul our air. They abuse our courts. They sell unsafe products and rip off their customers financially. Despite having grown and prospered, they have not raised real wages in 40 years. They exploit our education system, our infrastructure, and the fact that we are a stable and law-abiding society.

They ship jobs overseas when they see an opportunity to exploit an impoverished work force. They enjoy tax breaks from U.S. communities as long as it suits them and then, when they get a better deal, bail out to the next town willing to roll over for them.

Republicans argue that corporations should pay no tax in order to compensate us for the social and environmental damage they do, to help pay for the maintenance of our public institutions, our infrastructure, and business environment.

At present, corporations are awash in cash, which they use to increase dividends, execute stock buy-backs, and lavishly compensate their executives. The argument that a cash windfall to corporations will stimulate growth and job creation defies history and logic and is simply a con perpetrated by a bespoke Republican Party in order to loot the national treasury on behalf of their client base.

Robert Chew

Mystic