You would think the Republicans would be happy Nader is in the race. He will only take votes from the Dems.
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The Motor Carrier Act was originally proposed and enacted in various forms originating with Nixon, then through Ford then Carter signed into law the Act of 1980.
I find it rather amusing when corporate America cries and throws a temper tantrum on too much gov’t regulation, and then when the regulations are removed, sometimes promoting competition, a possibly better deal for the “consumer” they scream and throw a temper tantrum that they aren’t making enough money. It usually isn’t the actual competition that’s hurts them, it’s the over inflated salaries and perks handed to a bloated number of top management personnel that causes them to be less competitive.
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Clinton and Obama are speaking of a revision or renewal of the “windfall profits tax” on oil companies, this is not a sole Democratic position. There are Republicans also in support of this. No work is currently underway on any new legislation that I know of at this moment. And I doubt seriously if such a bill would ever pass through a corrupted Congress.
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There is nothing wrong with closing tax loopholes, “loopholes” that many times give one company a advantage over another, discourages competition and that corporations actually pay at least some taxes.
From:
http://www.cbpp.org/10-16-03tax.htm
A weak economy, new tax breaks, and aggressive tax sheltering have pushed corporate income tax receipts down to historically low levels, both relative to the size of the economy and as a share of total federal revenues. According to the most recent budget projections of the Congressional Budget Office, corporate revenues will remain at historically low levels even after the economy recovers, and even if the large new corporate tax breaks enacted in 2002 and 2003 are allowed to expire on schedule.
Deficits over the next decade are now projected to be enormous in size. A joint analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Concord Coalition, and the Committee for Economic Development projects deficits totaling $5 trillion through 2013. An analysis by Brookings economists reaches a very similar conclusion, while Goldman Sachs projects deficits totaling $5.5 trillion.[1] Despite the deteriorating fiscal outlook and the historically low corporate revenue collections we already face, Congress nonetheless seems poised to shower more tax breaks on corporations that would cause deficits to grow substantially larger over time (see box).
***Treasury Department figures show that actual corporate income tax revenues fell to $132 billion in 2003, down 36 percent from $207 billion in 2000.
***As a result of these low levels, corporate revenues in 2003 represented only 1.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (the basic measure of the size of the economy), the lowest level since 1983, the year in which corporate receipts plummeted to levels last seen in the 1930s.
