[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3743-3744]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 WALL STREET RISES AS MAIN STREET FALLS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, almost one in four homeowners in our country 
is underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their 
homes are worth, and all of this misery is due to Wall Street's rigging 
of our economy.
  But on Wall Street, they're popping champagne corks. The Nation's 
biggest banks--Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, 
Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley--have been raking in huge profits, 
all at the expense of the American people. In fact, these institutions 
have doubled in size through predatory mergers since the fall of 2007, 
and these six banks now control two-thirds of the banking system in our 
country.
  They cleaned up with profits in 2010--$51.6 billion in profits, more 
profits than they made before the American people bailed them out. Main 
Street is underwater, yet Wall Street is going on a pleasure cruise. It 
doesn't take a mental giant to figure who got our money.
  According to a recent report, the economic crisis that Wall Street 
precipitated has now caused massive tax revenue shortfalls for the 
Federal Government and our State governments totaling nearly $300 
billion. This is why people are at one another's throats in Wisconsin, 
in Ohio, and other places. Yes, ordinary Americans--teachers, police, 
firemen--are being pink-slipped, and the American people are being 
forced to accept cuts in government services while Wall Street keeps 
winning, and winning big.
  They know well how to win for themselves. This year, Bank of America 
is receiving an income tax refund of--are you ready for this, 
America?--$666 million for 2010. Now, that followed $3.5 billion in 
refunds that Bank of America reported in 2009. Bank of America's 
Federal income tax benefit this year is roughly two times the Obama 
administration's proposed cuts to the Community Development Block Grant 
program, which is a lifeline to communities such as I represent where 
unemployment is still over 9 percent.
  Six banks--Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, 
Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley--together paid income tax at an 
approximate rate of 11 percent--oh, those poor companies--of their 
pretax U.S. tax earnings in 2009 and 2010. Had they paid 35 percent 
like every other honest business in this country, the Federal 
Government would have received an additional $13 billion in tax 
revenue. Do you know how much that is? That's enough to cover the 
salaries of 132,000 teachers whose jobs have been lost since 2008. Who 
do you think has caused all the layoffs?

                              {time}  1050

  Wells Fargo reportedly received a $4 billion Federal income tax 
refund on $18 billion in pretax income in 2009 and only paid 7.5 
percent of its pretax income of $19 billion in 2010. Its net Federal 
income tax benefit for 2009 and 2010 combined is $2.5 billion, which 
equals the Obama administration's cuts to the low-income energy 
assistance program that is vital in cold weather to senior citizens, 
particularly women over the age of 80 years in districts like I 
represent.
  So who took their money? Pretty clear to me.
  Banks use a variety of mechanisms to avoid corporate income taxes, 
including offshore tax shelters. Fifty percent of these six big banks 
have 1,871 foreign subsidiaries incorporated in jurisdictions we know 
as off-shore tax havens, like the Cayman Islands.
  The Bank of America operates 371 tax-sheltered subsidiaries, and 204 
in the Cayman Islands alone.
  For Goldman Sachs, 75 percent of its foreign subsidiaries are 
incorporated in offshore tax havens.
  So who's paying their freight? You are--the American people.

[[Page 3744]]

  Closing tax loopholes for the financial sector, making them pay their 
fair share of taxes, and I would support imposing a financial 
speculation tax, could generate more than $150 billion in Federal tax 
revenue. And what could be more fair to those who cause such harm to 
the American people?
  Something is really out of kilter in America, and it's not the State 
budgets. It's the balance of power in our political system. Everywhere 
you go, Big Money and Wall Street win, and the American people pay.
  Mr. Speaker, I just say to the American people, think about who's 
hurt our Republic--and it's not the American working people.

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