[Hoot Gibson]

With all do respect the statements in Bold are false statements, the US goverment is and has been getting a nice return from its investment in GM and Chrysler. Plus many people benifit in having a job at GM or Chrysler or one of their suppliers. I don't think you fully understand Lean Manufacturing, if one of the major production lines at Ford or GM is shut down for one day then the production line for a parts supplier is shut down too or they're not following the principles of Lean Manufacturing. You also speak about modern Steel Mills. Were do you think these Electric Arc Furnaces get there power? The Republicain idea of what is surposed to happen in the US Economy is "The Rich get Richer and the poor get poorer" when that's not happening they are not happy. The longest period of peace-time economic expansion was during the Bill Clinton term as president. Clinton forced the rich and the big companies to annie up and pay like they should. If a big company like Walmart puts fleet after fleet of trucks on the road each day then it is common sense that they should pay a higher tax rate than a small business because they using the infrastructure more. There percentage of use is higher so their tax-rate should be higher. Just as I have said before the economic recovery has been slow because of human nature to be lazy. After I lost my job I started my own Machine shop and my business has grown very fast and I was very thankful for the tax breaks I got from Obama's Stimulus plan. I purchased a new CNC milling Machine this past July and my plan is to move from the Paintsville area and relocate my business soon.

You make an excellent point about steel companies being major consumers of electricity but point was not wrong. Years ago, steel companies paid a hefty premium for the high quality metallurgical grade coal that they required and consumed directly. While steel producers still consume large amounts of coal indirectly, the electricity that they consume often comes from nuclear, hydroelectric, or gas power plants.

As for your point about the taxpayers earning a nice return on their "investment" - that is just flat out wrong. I will address that point and your implication that Wal-Mart is undertaxed when I have more time. That is, unless you want to do some more research and set the record straight yourself. :biggrin: