(The bill would) cut the corporate rate ... in a year: Like the House bill, the Senate bill would cut the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35% today.That's it. Everything else is window dressing to me. For me, it's all about jobs and lowering the corporate tax rate would encourage businesses who have left to come back home. No, the pennies-per-hour-labor-cost Levis factories in Cambodia won't come back, but others would. I saw one estimate that said cutting the corporate tax rate would increase household income by $3500 from the jobs that would pour back to America. I can believe that.
Clarity. Another benefit to cutting the corporate tax rate dramatically is that it would test the conservative principle that private businesses drive the economy, not the state. Is what we believe true? Well, with this bill, we'd see. It certainly makes sense to me. The government raises funds from profits, both corporate and personal. If you punish businesses with regulations and taxes, they will take their profits elsewhere.
Another component to the clarity would be to reveal whether or not the Republican Party believes what it's been peddling all these years. Lower taxes, lower regulations, those are the keys to prosperity. We discovered with the ObamaCare repeal that John McCain has no convictions and is only there for the cameras and adulation. How about the rest of them? Can we get 50 votes for this great experiment in conservative foundational principles?
Expert Opinion. Our tax accountant son loves the bill. He said he can't believe how good it is in simplifying things and getting rid of ridiculous rules. He's apolitical as far as I know, so his take on it is simply professional. He's a serious dude and I respect what he has to say.
Trump is a Conservative. I don't know where the Trump-haters on the right go after this. Mountains of originalist judges appointed, slashing regulations at every turn, a sincere attempt to end the catastrophe of ObamaCare and now this. What the heck do you want? So the guy has a mouth on him like a New York City barroom blowhard. Enough already, we get it. He is turning out to be the most conservative president since Reagan and still they carp and whine.
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| It will probably come down to McCain. Does he believe in his stated principles more than he loves the adulation of the press? We'll see. |
That's fine as far as it goes, and I agree that corporate taxes are mostly counterproductive, especially with big multinationals that can just shuffle the money around the world to whoever has the lowest tax rate.
ReplyDeleteBut what I'm concerned about is the fact that everything I hear about the tax bills is that they are going to increase the deficit (the number I keep seeing bandied about, and that even supporters of the bills don't seem to be seriously denying, is an increase of $1.5 trillion over the next decade, above and beyond what the deficit was going to be in the first place).
I don't like this. I never liked deficits, and like them even less when they are unforced deficits during a period of economic growth. It's one thing to deficit spend when you are engaged in a war critical to the existence of the nation, or when the economy is collapsing. But to do it at a time when we are about as much at peace as we ever get, and the economy is already growing OK? This is the time when the government should be building up reserves for the next disaster, not blowing up their debt load so that the next big recession (or war, or even the coming wave of retirees demanding their social security) will drive us into bankruptcy.
I'm with you on the deficits. This blog is loaded with anti-debt posts. $20T is insane, but where is the outrage that would drive real change? I despair of fiscal sanity. Why hold up much-needed tax reform for something that isn't going to happen in the foreseeable future?
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent question, KT. Where *is* the outrage? What happened to all the Tea Partiers that used to say they cared intensely about the deficit? When did the Republican party, that used to be so keen to balance the budget, decide they wouldn't worry about it after all?
ReplyDeleteThe people who used to say they were worried about it still exist, don't they? Where did they all go? Surely you and I aren't the only ones left?
There's still the CRFB out there banging the drum for fiscal sanity, but not enough people want to listen.
The ones who need to freak out are the kids. They are the ones getting screwed. We can't be outraged for them. All of the Tea Party folks I know are still there and still feel the same way, but they got shivved in the back by both parties. They also want this corporate tax cut, so why not get this one first and deal with the deficit afterwards? Whether or not any of the politicians care about the kids enough to cut spending remains to be seen. I'm skeptical.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I'd like to see jobs in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Alabama, ...
"They also want this corporate tax cut, so why not get this one first and deal with the deficit afterwards?"
ReplyDeleteWhy not? Because it's a bribe to look the other way while they screw your kids, is why not. Are you happy to do that? Because I'm not.
Taking more from the people who work is, quite obviously, not working to lower the deficit.
ReplyDeleteMaybe try the thing that has at least partly worked-- letting people keep more of what they make, which appears to make them work harder, so you skim a higher raw amount a smaller bit at a time.