February 9, 2012
Without exception, when the issue of corporate tax rates is brought up, every Republican has a pre-programmed auto-response that activates with the following message: “Corporate tax rates are too high”; or something to that effect (each one programs his or her own auto-response). None of them actually offer a rate they think is acceptable, but they seem to nod in agreement at 25 percent vs. the current 35 percent. So if 25 percent is generally accepted (for now, at least), what’s wrong with this picture?
That particular headline is from ThinkProgress but if you search the issue you will be hit with hundreds of similar headlines. (No wonder corporate profits are at a 60-year high.)
The reason this tax rate is so low is due to all the tax breaks corporations enjoy. So, as an old farmer once said, ‘lets do some figurin’ here’.
As already pointed out, the current official tax rate is 35 percent – which obviously has become an effective rate of 12.2. So if we lower the official rate to 25 percent, it stands to reason corporations will be paying a 2.2 percent tax rate considering all the tax breaks they get. So —— no wonder Republicans are nodding in agreement to 25 percent!
Although one or two Republicans have “mentioned” doing something about the tax breaks, the vast majority has avoided the issue; especially the leadership. Now we know why.
As usual, most Republicans are simply doing what they always do when slapped in the face with facts: ignore them. House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy is one of those. When asked about this newly released information, McCarthy first said “Look, I see our tax system as holding us back. We have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world” before he was cut off to and dragged back to the question. He then pretty much repeated the same thing: “If you look at every rate where you go through, America is the second highest where they go. If you look at how the jobs are departed, you find that statistically we are too high…Statistically, I don’t see where the argument stands.”
So, if high corporate taxes is holding back job creation, just how low does taxes have to go before corporations start hiring?!? If 12.2 percent won’t do it, one has to believe high taxes aren’t the problem. Hell, even the most admired neocon doesn’t think our corporate tax rate is killing jobs.
The “I don’t see where the argument stands” comment by McCarthy is exactly what one can always expect from the right; an attempt to bait & switch. Take another recent example of a GOP slight of hand trick.
Eight GOP House Freshmen want to be officially credited for returning money to the treasury they say they received in order to help pay down the national debt; and they called a press conference to announce it. But there’s only one problem with that idea: They never received the money in the first place!
“The eight lawmakers announced that they were returning unused portions of their office budgets in the hope that the money could help pay down the debt. And they were feeling mighty pleased with themselves.”
As the article pointed out, this is nothing new; it’s routine by both chambers of Congress, and they do it without holding a press conference.
When challenged by a reporter, one member of the eight said “People like yourselves question the motives of people who are trying to cut down the debt”; to which the author of the linked article said “No, but they do question the motives of people who, a year after arriving in Washington with plans to change it forever, march around the Capitol grounds with phony checks.” Adequately stated!
For the record, “the eight anything-but-financial-geniuses are Jeff Landry (R-LA), Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), Joe Walsh (R-IL), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Kevin Yoder (R-KS), Raul Labrador (R-ID), Steve Southerland (R-FL), and Mick Mulvaney (R-SC).”
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