“The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part of the deal announced this week to wean the company from the massive taxpayer bailout that helped it survive the financial crisis…
“While the Obama administration has said taxpayers likely will profit from the sale of the Citigroup shares, accounting experts said the lost tax revenue could easily outstrip those profits…
“‘The government is consciously forfeiting future tax revenues. It’s another form of assistance, maybe not as obvious as direct assistance but certainly another form,’ said Robert Willens, an expert on tax accounting who runs a firm of the same name. ‘I’ve been doing taxes for almost 40 years and I’ve never seen anything like this where the IRS and Treasury acted unilaterally on so many fronts.'”
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“Over the weekend, Obama attacked fat-cat investment bankers, telling ’60 Minutes’ he didn’t become president to aid and abet Wall Street — which, only a year after the financial meltdown and taxpayer bailout, is now scheduled to hand out tens of billions of dollars in bonuses to its bankers and traders.
“But the president’s meeting yesterday with the CEOs of the largest banks was nearly a lovefest, I’m told by attendees…
“Said one CEO who attended: ‘I expected to be taken to the woodshed, but the tone was quite the opposite.’
“Said another senior exec with knowledge of the meeting: ‘The whole thing was so telegraphed that not much was accomplished, other than giving Obama a PR stunt… He might have sounded mean on ’60 Minutes,’ but during the meeting he was a hell of a lot nicer.'”
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