When asked by The Daily Caller if General Electric’s widely reported failure to pay any income tax on $14 billion in profits is a “bigger issue” than Mitt Romney’s 13.9 percent tax rate in 2010, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would only say that both cases are not “fair” and should be treated “the same.”
Initialy, Reid responded “We know that” to TheDC’s observation that GE “had over $14 billion in profits but paid no tax on that.”
Reid, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin and Sen. Chuck Schumer attacked Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, for paying 13.9 percent in federal income taxes on $21.6 million in 2010. (RELATED: Full coverage of Harry Reid)
“Yes, what GE does is improper. They may follow the tax code, but it’s not fair that they have the breaks that they do and the same applies to somebody who makes $43 million in two years, they pay less than 15 percent in taxes,” Reid said on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt chairs President Obama’s jobs council.
Earlier in the news conference about reactions to the president’s State of the Union address, Reid targeted Romney, calling him a “perfect example of what’s wrong with the tax code.”
Alluding to billionaire Warren Buffet calling for higher tax rates for the wealthy, Schumer said, “It’s a priority for us to act on some kind of Romney — I mean Buffet — Rule this year.”
This article was updated after publication to reflect that GE’s zero-percent tax rate has been widely reported but not confirmed.