In the State of the Union address, Obama mentioned the possibility of lowering corporate tax rates. Since then, Treasury Secretary Giethner has expressed some interest. That's good.
So far, however, there has been no concrete proposal to cut corporate rates. Perhaps they are worried about political fallout because the left views corporations as evil things that shouldn't get any “tax breaks.” But U.S. corporate rates are the second highest among developed countries, and will probably secure the #1 spot if Japan, as expected, lowers rates in April.
The end result of high corporate tax rates is that U.S. companies are less competitive, which among other things means lower economic growth and lower employment.
The left desperately needs an education on this. Below is a link to a study from the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. I copy the conclusions below for those who don't care to wade through the article.
Conclusions:
A growing number of policymakers are recognizing that the U.S. corporate tax system is a major barrier to economic growth. The aim of corporate tax reforms should be to create a system that has a competitive rate and is neutral between different business activities. A sharp reduction to the federal corporate rate of 10 percentage points or more combined with tax base reforms would help generate higher growth and ultimately more jobs and income. Such reforms would likely lose the government little, if any, revenue over the long run
State governments also play an important role in business tax policy. Unfortunately, the average state corporate tax rate has not been cut in at least three decades, despite major reductions around the world since then. Furthermore, state retail sales taxes impose substantial burdens on capital purchases, which undermines investment and productivity. Thus, sales taxes should be reformed to remove taxation on business inputs.
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