80 CEOs wrote a letter lecturing America about deficit reduction to the [url=http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203937004578076253372633058#project%3DCEOLIST20121025%26articleTabs%3Darticle]Wall Street Journal[/url], and they talk about how cutting social programs like Medicare and Medicaid is necessary to do this. I find this hilarious, offensive, and down right underhanded. Why you ask? Many of these CEOs have wrecked the economy by evading taxes and outsourcing jobs. These are some of the same CEOs who head corporations that: •Received a total taxpayer bailout of more than $2.5 trillion from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department and nearly caused the economy to collapse just four years ago; •Outsourced hundreds of thousands of American jobs to China and other low wage countries, forcing their workers to receive unemployment insurance and other federal benefits; •Avoided at least $34.5 billion in taxes by setting up more than 600 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other offshore tax havens since 2008; and •A dozen of these companies paid no corporate income taxes in at least one year since 2008, while receiving more than $6.4 billion in tax refunds from the IRS, after making billions in profits. In other words, these are some of the same people who have significantly caused the deficit to explode over the last four years. The last thing we need to do is listen to these deficit increasing CEOs. Here are just a few examples of how the corporations these CEOs work for have significantly harmed our economy and the federal budget: 1. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan [spoiler]-Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. -$1.9 billion tax refund. Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS in 2010, even though it made $4.4 billion in profits. -Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? Over -$1.3 trillion. During the financial crisis, Bank of America received a total of more than $1.3 trillion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $45 billion bailout from the Treasury Department. -Number of Offshore Tax Havens in 2010? 371. In 2010, Bank of America operated 371 subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens, more than any other financial institution in the United States. 204 of these subsidiaries are incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which has a corporate tax rate of 0%. -Amount of federal income taxes Bank of America would have owed in 2010 if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.6 billion.[/spoiler] 2. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein [spoiler]-Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. -$278 million tax refund. In 2008, Goldman Sachs received a $278 million refund from the IRS, even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion that year. -Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $824 billion. During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received a total of $814 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $10 billion bailout from the Treasury Department. -Number of offshore tax havens in 2010? 39. -Amount of federal income taxes Goldman Sachs would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.7billion. [/spoiler] 3. JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon [spoiler]-Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $416 billion. During the financial crisis, JP Morgan Chase received a total of more than $391 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $25 billion bailout from the Treasury Department, while Jamie [b]Dimon[/b] served as a director of the New York Federal Reserve. -Number of Offshore Tax Havens in 2010? 83. -Amount of federal income taxes JP Morgan Chase would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.9 billion. In 2011, JP Morgan Chase stashed $21.8 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $4.9 billion in federal income taxes.[/spoiler] 4. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt [spoiler]-Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $3.3 billion tax refund. In 2010, not only did General Electric pay no federal income taxes, it received a $3.3 billion tax refund from the IRS, even though it earned over $5 billion in U.S. profits. -Number of offshore tax havens? At least 14. GE has at least 14 tax haven subsidiaries in Bermuda, Singapore, and Luxembourg for the purpose of avoiding U.S. income taxes. -Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve? $16 billion. During the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve provided GE with $16 billion in financial assistance, at a time when Jeffrey Immelt was a director of the New York Federal Reserve. -Jobs Shipped Overseas? At least 25,000 since 2001. Since 2001, General Electric has closed more than 30 manufacturing plants in the United States, cut 34,000 American jobs, and added 25,000 jobs overseas. General Electric now has more workers abroad than it does in the United States. On December 6, 2002, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, said at an investor's meeting: ``When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China, China, China. You need to be there. You need to change the way people talk about it and how they get there. I am a nut on China. Outsourcing from China is going to grow to $5 billion. We are building a tech center in China. Every discussion today has to center on China. The cost basis is extremely attractive. You can take an 18 cubic foot refrigerator, make it in China, land it in the United States, and land it for less than we can make an 18 cubic foot refrigerator today, ourselves.'' Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman, CEO of General Electric, quoted at an investor meeting on December 6, 2002[/spoiler] 5. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam [spoiler]-Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $705 million tax refund. -In 2010, Verizon received a $705 million refund from the IRS despite earning $11.9 billion in pre-tax U.S. profits. -American Jobs Cut in 2010? In 2010, Verizon announced 13,000 job cuts, the third highest corporate layoff total that year.[/spoiler] In the interest of not having a massive wall of text, I'll stop at 5. [spoiler]source: http://www.ctj.org/[/spoiler] TL;DR we need to look what is actually responsible for the debt, and stop trying to shove the burden on the poor, working, and middle class Americans.