AT&T's financial figures reveal 19 BEEELLLION reasons why it lobbied hard for US tax cuts

FAIL

> American companies are pretty much forced by law and previous lawsuit case history to put stockholders first

No, corporations are not compelled by any law or precedent to prioritize stockholders.

Actually, in case of bankruptcy proceedings, a corporation is required to prioritize bondholders and employees over stockholders, as bonds and salaries have seniority over stock.

Please stop repeating this falsehood invented by CNBC and their friends in order to justify greed.

There is not a single US Federal or State statute that requires a corporation to prioritize its profits or earnings one way or another. There isn't even a statutory requirement for a corporation to be profitable.

If you know of such a statute, please provide the reference here.

"Mainly due to the elimination of the personal exemptions on taxable income ($4K per person)"

FUD. the personal deduction was INCREASED. If your taxes went up, you must've been purchasing things that the rest of us were effectively paying for. Well, I guess YOU can pay for it yourself, now.

I'd prefer a 100% FLAT tax, with a per-person deduction that is teh same for everybody. NO deductions, NO loopholes, NO different rates for married/single. FLAT. That's actually FAIR. And with that kind of system (see what Forbes wanted to do a few years ago) the lowest income earners would pay ZERO.

Anyway, being a believer in supply-side economics, just like JFK, Reagan, and now Trump, I would expect to see gummint revenues INCREASE, and then we'd be able to pay off Obaka's $9 trillion or so of accumulated extra DEBT.

/me recognizes that you have to get legislation passed by Con-Grab, and it's not always easy to get it all right in the first phase. So what we have NOW is a compromise of what could actually get through Con-Grab.

Re: Off The Topic Yet Again

well, I just recently had my phone line repaired. It had a broken wire. sounded like 100 cats scratching on a door. Took 3 weeks since there have been fires, mudslides, and heavy rains somewhat recently. The tech was friendly enough, and got it done in a couple of hours. but yeah, 3 weeks? And my phone line is the "bad luck line" at the very end of the loop. My neighbor's phone line goes "the other way" to the phone company building. But I think a big part of the problem is that AT&T can't really replace the lines. they're scheduled to be placed underground. Thing is, they have to do a 'poor neighborhood' for every 'well to do neighborhood' they do, because, governmentium. There's been a budget for putting the lines underground for DECADES. And yet, it's only a fraction complete. yeah, GUMMINT gumming things up.

Not all AT&T's fault, at any rate. [but we all hate the utility companies, regardless]

during that time period, my AT&T cell phone and 2nd land line worked just fine.