Seniors and Vets to Crash ‘Fix the Debt’ Party Hosted by Honeywell CEO

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/172819/seniors-and-vets-crash-fix-debt-party-hosted-honeywell-ceo

Seniors and disabled veterans are planning today to crash a “Fix the Debt” party in New Hampshire hosted by Honeywell CEO David Cote. Fix the Debt, an organization comprised of many of the country’s richest and most powerful CEOs, pushes the case for cutting Social Security and Medicare as well as lowering the corporate income tax rate.

As such, the organization—and subsequent party—caught the eye of the anti–corporate tax-dodging group US Uncut and the new group Flip the Debt.

“We wouldn’t have to make these cuts, and we could invest in putting America back to work, if only [corporations] pay their fair share. So we say, rather than ‘fix the debt,’ let’s ‘flip the debt’ and put responsibility where it belongs. Hey 1%! Pay your damn taxes,” Flip the Debt states on its website.

The two tax accountability groups have organized the protest, which will include seniors and disabled vets sharing their stories about how they survive on programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, then handing over their Social Security checks to Cote. They will demand that Cote, a spokesperson for Fix the Debt, answer the question: Why are you demanding that we reduce the deficit by cutting critical social programs, when your own company practices tax-dodging that has contributed millions to the national debt?

Despite reporting substantial pretax US profits to shareholders, Honeywell paid no federal income taxes in 2009 or 2010 (or more precisely, paid less than zero), according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit advocacy think tank.

[annabanana]

1. Looking for updates to this action . .

Make sure & post if you find any.

[Kolesar]

2. Honeywell: Weapons contrator scum...eom

[Scuba]

3. K&R

[Sadie5]

4. It is corporate debt

and the generous handouts that corporations feel they are entitled to not to mention these crazy off the wall fringe groups that ruin the national debt, not social programs. I hope they yell at the top of their lungs about the injustice here. Sounds like another tea party in the making.

[eridani]

5. Running the Tax Dodgers Out of Town

Looks like the intervention is going well--
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/15994-focus-running-the-tax-dodgers-out-of-town

Cote is one of the leading voices of the "Fix the Debt" campaign, which argues that the federal deficit needs to be addressed before anything else, and that deficit reduction should primarily come from Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries. Fix the Debt has already been exposed as a front group for the world's richest war profiteers to protect their billion-dollar Pentagon contracts, and the world's worst corporate tax dodgers to protect their egregious loopholes and gimmicks in the US tax code.

Honeywell is a leading tax dodger and war profiteer, having secured $1.5 billion in defense contracts in 2012, and paying a minus .7% federal income tax rate between 2008 and 2010. Honeywell is sitting on an impressive $39.8 billion in assets and is the 33rd largest recipient of tax dollars out of the top 100 military contractors. So it's pretty ballsy for a CEO of a corporation that got money back from Uncle Sam instead of paying taxes, to insist that retirees and the disabled pay down the national debt before he loses any of his billions.

Cote took his message to Manchester, New Hampshire, on Monday, February 11th, and was shut down by grannies and veterans. Just minutes into Cote's speech, activists with the Flip the Debt campaign and US Uncut New Hampshire began loudly informing the audience about Honeywell's obscenely low tax rate and handing out information to other attendees, while disabled workers and elderly retirees ceremoniously handed Cote their Social Security checks. One attendee was heard saying, "I only get $1200 a month to live on, but you need another yacht.

[eridani]

6. Protesters Confront CEO and "Fix the Debt" Leader over Corporate Tax Breaks

http://truth-out.org/news/item/14487-protesters-confront-ceo-and-fix-the-debt-leader-over-corporate-tax-breaks

"Fix the Debt," the CEO-led campaign promoting fear and what some have called near-hysteria over the national debt, has met its grassroots nemesis: "Flip the Debt." While speaking at a Fix the Debt conference on Monday, Honeywell International Inc. CEO David Cote was interrupted several times by Flip the Debt protesters over tax loopholes that allow companies like Honeywell and General Electric to pay far less taxes than ordinary Americans.

Three minutes into Cote's keynote address, the first heckler trumpeted:

"Fix the Debt claims to seek bipartisan solutions to reduce the deficit, but Fix the Debt is nothing more than a CEO lobby whose real objective is huge corporate tax breaks and drastic cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. David Cote and his CEO friends receive a lot from government: In 2011, Honeywell received $725 million in government deals, making it the 35th largest federal contractor. However, Honeywell and other companies pay next to nothing in taxes. Honeywell's tax rate from 2008-2011 was 2 percent. Does anyone in this room pay 2 percent?"

The crowd applauded, but Cote only laughed nervously.

Gan Golan, cofounder of Flip the Debt, laid out his group's goals. "We will disrupt Fix the Debt meetings across the country to elevate our message that the biggest corporations in the country aren't paying taxes, and now they want the rest of us to pay for it. Sustained public pressure against corporate tax dodgers in the UK has put the issue at the top of the agenda there, and we hope to do the same."