"That's why you've got to be careful about this rhetoric, we're only going to tax the rich. You know who the--the rich in America happen to be the small business owners. That's what that means. Just remember, when you're talking about, oh, we're just going to run up the taxes on a certain number of people -- first of all,
real rich people figure out how to dodge taxes. (Laughter.) And the small business owners end up paying a lot of the burden of this taxation."
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=1675Cheney has $15 million to $75 million
salted away in tax-exempt bond funds, and $2 million to $10 million in stocks that a global investment management firm is handling for him.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&e=1... And here's Kerry:What we want is for average, middle class Americans who work hard to be able to get ahead just like their parents did. 20 years ago, the average CEO made 42 times what the average worker made. Now it’s 531 times more. It’s out of whack. Yet 40 percent of Bush’s tax giveaway goes to that very top 1 percent. I think that’s an attack on the fundamental fairness that holds this country together.
Unfortunately, while this President talks tough on corporate accountability - his administration has worked tirelessly to undermine reform and sabotage any meaningful oversight of the accounting industry. They even tried to cut next year’s budget for the SEC by $200 million - further weakening enforcement of corporate crimes.
We need an SEC chairman who will put investors ahead of industry, an Accounting Oversight Board chairman who will make sure they correct the books, instead of cooking them. And we need to give the SEC the tools it needs to enforce the laws.
Just think - offshore tax havens and shelters enable corporations and
executives to evade an estimated $70 billion in taxes each year. How can anyone in this country suggest we have a fair system when companies can take $70 billion off the table? That undermines the very essence of our government. It’s a system only companies like Enron could love. And did they ever. Enron held over 800 subsidiaries in countries with no taxes on income, profits, or capital gains -- 692 in the Cayman Islands alone.
Assets in offshore entities have climbed from an estimated $200 billion in 1983, to an estimated $5 trillion today - and too many are brass plate addresses with a fax machine in an offshore tax haven.
What does that say to the vast majority of Americans who actually pay taxes? And the silence from this Administration speaks volumes! They’ve dragged their feet and fought every attempt to crack down on corporate loopholes. It’s time we stood up and insisted on real reform and real tax fairness.
http://www.johnkerry.com/site/PageServer?pagename=spc_2... 
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