Now & Then & Etc

My synopsis of Westneat’s article:

The always insightful Danny Westneat, columnist for the Seattle Times, using Washington state’s own Microsoft corporation as an example, describes how corporations have raked in profits while legally paying minimal to no taxes, especially since “the Republican-led Congress and President Donald Trump pushed through their ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ that slashed corporate taxes and extended a slew of loopholes and credits.” Westneat says that this tax avoidance by corporations—occurring while our huge national debt increases, which threatens our country—should be part of election discussions.

As the column states: “In the past two years, roughly since Trump took office, personal income tax revenue is up 6%. . . . But corporate tax payments have plunged 29%.” This represents “an unprecedented gold rush of profit-booking and tax-minimizing.” “The tax breaks for corporations are so huge that many companies are paying zero or close to it.”

All this occurring while America’s national debt is now more than $40 trillion, which one source said “exacerbates inflation, squeezes out other priorities in the budget, and leaves ourselves vulnerable to emergencies at home and abroad,” adding that “it is staggering how predictable the fiscal decline of a global power can become.”

Westneat concludes that “It’s unsettling that there are pitched campaigns for Congress going on all over the state right now, and this issue—of the $40 trillion debt, of who might be called on to help solve it, of how it relates to us continuing to function as a country—has scarcely come up.”

Danny Westneat (Seattle Times columnist), “We’re No. 1—For Corporate Tax Breaks,” Seattle Times, 23 Aug. 2026, pp. C1 & C4. Print.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/were-no-1-for-corporate-tax-breaks/