Thirteen firms that received billions of dollars in federal bailout money owe more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes:
- Banks and other firms receiving federal money were required to sign contracts stating they had no unpaid taxes.
- But the Treasury Department did not even ask the firms to turn over their tax records.
Rep. John Lewis, chairman of a House subcommittee overseeing the federal bailout, said two firms owe more than $100 million apiece.
[. . .]
The committee said it could not legally release the names of those companies owing taxes. It said one recipient had almost $113 million in unpaid federal income taxes from 2005 and 2006. A second recipient owed almost $102 million dating to before 2004. Another was behind $1.1 million in federal income taxes and $223,000 in federal employment taxes.
The House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight discovered the unpaid taxes when it reviewed the tax records from 23 of the firms receiving the most bailout money. How much do the other 447 firms we bailed out firm owe?
Couple this fiasco with the fact that Obama's so-called stimulus protects the A.I.G. bonuses, and it is more clear than ever that President Reagan was right. The government is not the solution:
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