My calculator only has spaces for 8 digits.

The chairman of Exxon, Lee Raymond, will receive a retirement package worth nearly $400 million. His company's stock price went up 500% during his 12 year reign and that is the new going rate for such performance. He said last year after a gallon of gas was routinely over $2, "that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand". Today with gas near $3 per gallon, roughly twice of what it was 1 1/2 years ago, the world is apparently demanding a huge increase in supply in a very short period of time. Seems odd to me too.

I would prefer to use my calculator to determine how many teachers or firefighters can be employed for a year on $400 million, but it only has room for 8 digits. The new frontier of corporate greed has bypassed my 5 year old calculator. In 1960 corporations paid 23% of all federal tax revenue. Today, only 10%. Glad to hear that all of the huge tax savings are being spent on worthwhile forward thinking exploration techniques and technology.

We're told that a lower corporate tax rate produces more investment and I agree with that to a point. We must not lose sight of the facts though: a company wants to earn more money and they will invest, receive investment money if necessary, and will add jobs to meet those desires if demand exists for their products. Let's stop treating the corporate tax rate as a 100% trickle-down mechanism of economic and job growth.

At a time when many large companies are decreasing health insurance coverage and eliminating pension funds for employees and most small companies can't afford to offer them at all, isn't it time for Congress to make corporations increase their share of the tax burden. Let's say until it gets to the point that we're reading about $10 million retirement packages and under $5 million dollar CEO salaries, after stock options. You know, back when my 8 digit calculator was sufficient.

Generating a slightly higher percentage of our federal government's tax revenues from corporate taxes, along with reducing the impossible to fully fund social program mandates, we can get much closer to balancing the budget.

I did the calculation the old fashioned way... 5,000 teachers and 5,000 firefighters for a year!


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