Maybe John Edwards was right

I think it's an obscene outrage and here's another reason why: http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/12/goldman-sachs-r.html "Goldman Sachs expects to pay just $14 million in taxes this year, giving the bank an "effective income tax rate" of 1% on a global basis, Bloomberg News reports. The news agency says Goldman paid $6 billion in taxes in 2007. Here's how the firm described its anticipated tax obligations on page four of yesterday's report: The effective income tax rate was 1% for 2008 down from 25.1% for the first nine months of 2008 and down from 34.1% for fiscal year 2007. The decreases in the tax rate were primarily due to an increase in permanent benefits as a percentage of lower earnings and changes in geographic earnings mix. “I was definitely taken aback,” Robert Willens, a tax adviser, tells Bloomberg. “Clearly they have taken steps to ensure that a lot of their income is earned in lower-tax jurisdictions.” The company lost $2.29 billion in the fourth quarter, according to AP, which reminds us that the bank received $10 billion in taxpayer assistance two months ago." There certainly ARE two Americas! One in which you can get $10 billion from taxpayers earning an average of 10% of what you pay out in bonuses for an entire year and only pay 1% in taxes yourself and the other one where we get $crewed and $crewed AGAIN! Annie