You know you're deep in Republican territory when the talk turns to how overtaxed corporations are. Of all the problems in this country, you really wonder what kind of a value system would make this a priority.
Anyway. The current version goes something like this (courtesy of John McCain):
We now have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, making America a less attractive place for companies to do business.
The same refrain was sounded yet again this morning by Hoover Institute "fellow" Michael Boskin who mentioned it while condemning (not surprisingly) Obama's economic plan for being "pro government" -- whatever that means.
Now if anyone who's been living in the real world for the past 8 years smells a rat, there's good reason.
As the LA Times explains:
Among the 30 most developed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States’ official corporate tax rates are near the top.
But because of breaks or loopholes in the tax code, the corporate tax revenue actually collected in the U.S. was fourth-lowest among the 30 nations, according to the organization’s data.
“It’s a bit misleading,” said Bob McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy group in Washington. “The rate is high. But most U.S. companies don’t pay taxes on most of their profits.”
Overall, he said, corporate taxes accounted for about half of all income taxes in the 1960s. They now account for less than 10%.
Still, McCain’s corporate tax cut “would cost $100 billion a year,” said Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington and an informal advisor to Obama’s campaign. “And he hasn’t come anywhere near explaining how he would pay for that.”
We've been here before. It's called "Voodoo Economics" and it's been the hallmark of every Republican hack running for office since time immemorial. John McCain is simply the current 'pretty face' to this worn out and bankrupt agenda.
