The $104 Billion Corporate Tax REFUND!!!

Print: "The $104 Billion Refund
The most absurd corporate tax giveaway of 2005.
By Michelle Leder
Posted Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 12:33 PM ET


Feeling flush because you're getting a nice tax refund this year? You're not alone. Some of America's largest corporations�a virtual who's who of the Fortune 100�have been reporting their own hefty tax windfalls, thanks to an absurd provision of a law designed to create jobs.
IBM, for example, is banking a $2.8 billion refund�well, better to call it a 'tax savings'�because instead of paying the normal corporate tax rate of 35 percent on $9.5 billion in profits it earned overseas, the company paid only 5.25 percent. That's the magic of the American Jobs Creation Act, a piece of legislation that passed with comfortable margins in both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush just two weeks before the 2004 elections.
The AJCA, which was pushed through during the last fit of panic about outsourcing, was ostensibly designed to encourage companies to add jobs here. It gave a small tax deduction to American manufacturers, and it offered a one-time tax holiday in 2005 when corporations could repatriate their foreign income at a massively reduced tax rate. This repatriation, the theory went, would encourage R & D and capital investment in the United States, leading to new positions down the road. But, like President Bush's creatively named Clear Skies initiative and Healthy Forest Restoration Act, the American Jobs Creation Act has not lived up to its title.
Take IBM. According to its annual report for 2005, the company added fewer than 400 jobs worldwide last year to its workforce of 329,000 people. At the same time, IBM shed 5 million square feet of space in the United States, making it highly unlikely that any"

Further surge in gas prices expected - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com

Further surge in gas prices expected - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com: " MSNBC.com'Print this' sponsored by

Further surge in gas prices expected
Wholesale gains are not yet fully reflected in pump prices
By John W. Schoen
Senior Producer
MSNBC
Updated: 6:37 p.m. ET April 11, 2006


WASHINGTON - With the summer driving season still more than a month away, gasoline prices have already started their seasonal climb � jumping 15 percent in the past six weeks alone. And that�s just the price you�re paying at the pump. With wholesale prices rising even faster, it�s a safe bet that the surge in pump prices isn�t over, analysts say.
In fact, pump prices are rising along with the temperature, and motorists should expect little relief during this summer�s heavy driving period according to a government report released Tuesday.
The official short-term energy outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects the price for regular grade gasoline this summer will average $2.62 a gallon, 25 cents higher than last summer, barring any unexpected supply disruptions. Gasoline prices have soared since February.
Last week, motorists paid on average $2.68 a gallon nationwide for regular, an 18-cent increase in two weeks and 40 cents higher than the national average a year ago.
Growing demand, high crude oil costs, requirements for low-sulfur gasoline and greater demand for corn-based ethanol as an additive all �are expected to keep consumer prices for motor fuels ... high in 2006,� said the report.
The high prices are not expected to dampen demand during the April-September heavy driving season. Motorists are expected to use an average 9.4 million barrels of gasoline a day, or 1.5 percent more than last summer, according to the EIA.
�All of these fa"