The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

 

* 25 CEOs' Pay Exceeding Corporate Taxes Paid * Nurses Protest Wall Street

WASHINGTON

SARAH ANDERSON, CHUCK COLLINS, via Lacy MacAuley, lacy at ips-dc.org
Anderson and Collins are among the authors of an Institute for Policy Studies report released today titled "Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging." Among the findings: "The 25 tax-dodging CEOs the IPS report spotlights averaged $16.7 million in pay last year, well above the $10.8 million S&P 500 CEO average. Most of their companies registered substantial profits. Yet these same companies actually came out ahead at tax time. They collected, on average, $413 million in refunds from the IRS."

DEBORAH BURGER, via Charles Idelson, cidelson at calnurses.org
Burger is co-president of National Nurses United which is organizing nurses and supporters around the country on Thursday to call on Congress members to tax Wall Street financial speculation. Events include soup kitchen meals, community speak-outs, street theater and converging at Congressional district offices.

Burger said today: "A tax on Wall Street trading of stocks, derivatives, currencies, credit default swaps, and futures -- which many other nations have now adopted -- could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for programs that are desperately needed to reduce the pain and suffering felt by so many who feel abandoned across this nation."

For list of events, videos and more information, see.

A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.