conoco phillips, fifth largest oil company in the u.s., made made $16 billion in profits from 2007-2009, but received a a $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deductions. over the past five years, carnival cruise lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rates dropped during those years to just 1.1%. so the point is if you go out and you work for a living, you pay taxes, 10%, 15% of your income taxes. but if you're on wall street, if you're a major oil company, you have lobbyists all over this place, not only can you avoid paying any taxes, in many cases, you'll actually get a tax refederal fund from the i.r.s. so what's the point? the point is that at a time when we have a $1.6 trillion deficit, maybe we have to reduce that deficit, not simply on the backs of working families, low-income people, the children, the sick, the elderly. maybe, maybe we might want to call for shared sacrifice. maybe exxonmobil and some of the large oil companies might be asked to pay something in taxes. maybe general electric might be asked to pay som