With the middle class paying an increasingly larger part of the federal tax bill, aren't you wondering who's skipping out on their share of the tab? Corporate income tax revenues have hit a record low and we're wondering why Congress is writing new legislation that would reduce them even more.

According to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office, corporate income taxes fell from $207 billion to $132 billion in just three years, with an 11 percent reduction just last year. Corporate taxes now account for less than 8 percent of all federal revenue collected, down from a high of 28 percent in 1950.

Sure, some of the reduction in corporate tax revenue can be attributed to the weakened economy. However, tax cuts for corporations enacted over the past few years are one of the main reasons for this drop-off. Even if the economy fully rebounds, experts believe that corporate freeloaders will not pay their fair share for years to come.

In 2002, the corporate tax rate was 24.6 percent, but recent giveaways could whittle that figure down to less than ten percent this year, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. Business tax breaks enacted in the last two years will cost the nation $177 billion between 2002 and 2005.

Here are some of the major corporate giveaways from 2003.

• $5 billion in tax breaks for major U.S. exporters, including Boeing, Caterpillar Inc. and General Motors Corp.
• $9 billion in research and experimentation tax breaks, to benefit companies like Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb
• $11 billion for companies operating overseas.

When you add up all major corporate tax breaks, the federal revenue losses exceed $60 billion a year. However, many experts believe that corporate tax sheltering, which costs taxpayers an additional $50 to $75 billion a year, is one of the more serious tax related issues that our country faces. Studies have found that all the tax shelters and special treatment tax breaks are enabling corporations to report $154 billion more in income to their shareholders than they report to the IRS.

But, Congress's response has been to sit on their hands and do nothing about corporate tax sheltering and it looks like there's no end in sight to the corporate tax bargain bonanza. A Senate committee recently passed a $110 billion corporate tax bill that resembles a buffet of pork for multi-national corporations and includes $600 million for Hollywood movie producers and a $180 million giveaway to the timber industry. The House is still working on their bill, which will provide corporate tax breaks of $200 billion over the next 10 years.

Despite a record budget deficit, the need to pay for our efforts in Iraq, and many companies paying lower tax rates than millions of middle class Americans, corporate lobbyists' have an insatiable hunger for handouts. The giveaways are only creating a larger and larger deficit that will burden our kids for decades and corporate freeloaders need to be stopped. It defies logic that Congress is contributing to the feeding frenzy.