From a place the neocons will certainly scoff att, the american progress report comes this:
The Carnival Corporation's cruise lines benefit from federal, state and local services, yet over the past five years, the company has paid only 1.1 percent of its $11.3 billion in profits in total taxes "thanks to an obscure loophole in the tax code." Likewise, of the 500 big companies on the S&P stock index, 115 paid a total tax rate of less than 20 percent while 39 paid less than 10 percent.
From another they'll deny:
Why should our govermnent, via the coast guard, do anything for cruise ships and their passengers, if we can't give gramma a heart transplant for free?