And that’s the case this morning with a Wall Street Journal story reporting that big, global U.S. corporations (the ones Republicans want to hand tax breaks to) have been hiring overseas while cutting U.S. workers. Firms such as General Electric, Caterpillar, Microsoft and Wal-Mart were among the firms that cut American workers by 2.9 million in the past decade while adding 2.4 million overseas.

In the previous decade, the reverse was true — 4.4 million jobs added in the U.s. and 2.7 million created abroad.

If you recall, yesterday I posted an item that as S&P was considering downgrading the U.S. government’s credit rating because of deficit fears, the IRS was reporting that something like 40 percent of Americans paid no income tax. The super rich got huge tax breaks. My point was if you are truly concerned about government spending, one needs to look at revenue coming in as well as cuts.

The very same people who want to cut taxes, especially for the Citation jet crowd, are the same ones who want to give big corporations big tax and trade breaks. Incredibly, the New York Times reported that GE paid no income taxes in 2010, after taking advantage of tax breaks galore, including many overseas, although it apparently did pay some tax estimates.

Acording to today’s Journal story, GE had 158,000 workers in the U.S. and 152,000 overseas in 2001. Last year, the situation was different — 133,000 in the U.S. and 154,000 overseas.

I understand that as the world’s economies become increasingly global, corporations have to put their people where the most active markets are. That’s just as Groovy as Groveton, save for one point. Why do conservatives constantly make them out to be the Poor Nellies who have to suffer from U.S. government intrusion, regulations and taxes?

If one looks at this with his or her budget deficit blinders on (meaning that nothng else is important these days), one sees no joy for the budget or the deficit. If companies employ fewer workers, they won’t be generating wealth and taxes (of course plenty don’t pay taxes anyway). Corporation won’t be paying as much in taxes, either (of course, GE apparently doesn’t pay taxes anyway.) ANy wealth generated will probably be in Kuala Lumpur.

So at the end of the day, you have to wonder why all the attention is on cuts. Look at Paul Ryan’s shamefully ridiculous budget proposal that would chop up Medicare and give it over the the managed care companies whose track record in keeping Amerians healthy is less than spectacular. That, however, is a topic for another day.

So, to you Baconauts and Boomergeddons, I say, in the words of the Great Santini, “Haroog, Harooga!

Peter Galuszka