Posted on 03/10/2004 10:51:13 PM PST by JohnnyZ
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim DeMint said Tuesday changes in the tax code - not a moratorium on trade agreements - are the way to keep jobs and companies in the United States.
DeMint said better trade agreements are needed, but the best way to continue to increase business is to knock down trade barriers so U.S. companies can sell freely to other countries.
"Those who want to close our borders ... you need to know that that's going to kill your job," DeMint told a crowd of about 40 workers at Harsco Track Technologies, a company that makes parts for railroad tracks.
America's corporate tax rate - about 35 percent - is the second-highest in the world, DeMint said. That makes it more expensive for U.S. companies to export products than it is for companies in other countries to export them, he said.
Eighteen percent of Harsco's products went overseas in 2002, DeMint said. By last year, that was up to 36 percent, and this year about half is expected to be exported, he said.
The high tax rate "makes it harder and harder to be competitive," DeMint said. "The only way to fix that is with better trade agreements that we enforce, but the other way we've got to fix it is to make you as competitive as we can."
Other things hurting the American companies' ability to compete are high energy and health insurance costs as well as "junk" lawsuits that result in big jury awards, DeMint said.
Mechanic John Smith, 52, of Lexington, said he's not so worried about free trade agreements as he is about high taxes threatening to move jobs overseas.
"We just need to get all these taxes evened out with these other countries," said Smith, who considers himself a Democrat. "They're tearing us up."
DeMint is part of a crowded Republican field seeking the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings. Other Republicans seeking the seat are former state Attorney General Charlie Condon, former Gov. David Beasley, Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, Charleston real estate developer Thomas Ravenel and Bluffton businesswoman Orly Benny Davis.
Democrats in the race are state Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum and Marcus Belk of Camden.
Jim DeMint and David Beasley are most likely to be the candidates in the runoff.
Now the media will try to stop him, and the liberals-moderates will bash him for telling the truth..
Goodnight everybody!!
I have a slightly different idea: Boost the corporate tax on companies that export their jobs, such as refusing to let them deduct whatever they pay workers in foreign countries as business expenses. In other words, workers in India are no longer that much cheaper than American workers.
IF they closed our borders to all imports, there would be a lot of jobs in this country. There would be more jobs than there are people to do them. But everything would cost a lot too.
- "There has been a shift in the relationship between individuals and government, he argues, such that fewer and fewer are paying taxes at the same time that more and more are receiving increasingly generous benefits. If it becomes the case that most voters do not bear a financial burden for this largess, then there will be little to restrain--and significant political incentives to encourage--the continued growth of government.
A Taxreform bump for you all.
If you would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
If the cost delta is as much as advertised, this will have zero effect.
A corporation does not actually pay income taxes. Its customers pay the corporation's income taxes, in the form of higher costs for goods and services.
To encourage Econ.Growth a country must be competitive and at present the US relative to it's major trading partners, has a 20%+ disadvantage, due to high external costs. These cost are Taxes, Regulations, Litigation, Health-care.
Repealing the federal income/payroll tax system and replacing it with a tax at retail sales only would go along way towards correcting that problem.
As it is now, products coming in from other nations are subsidized by having their nation's VATs credited to their exporters. They are able to lower there export price by that level as their products leave their countries essentially unburdened by their taxes systems.
OTOH, our nation embeddes its income/payroll taxes and costs associated with them into prices of it manufacturers and exporters. Placing us at a severe disadvantage in international trade.
Get rid of the income/payroll tax syste would allow a fall in producer prices of around 22% thus making our products more competitive on the international scene.
At the same time levy a retail sales tax on all products, imports would be taxed the same as our own manufacturers for the first time in nearly a hundred years. The change would be dramatic.
Rep. Bill Archer, Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee 106th Congress:
- "A recent survey was done, in Europe and Japan, of the major corporations and I was astounded at the results. They were asked, 'If the US abolished its income tax and went to a sales tax, would that have any impact on your decisions?' Eighty percent of the corporations said they would build their factories in the United States of America. Twenty percent said they would move their international headquarters to the United States of America."
Businesses don't pay taxes, they simply pass the taxes along to individuals. Only individuals pay taxes.
The only way for business to have money is thru sales of its product. Those revenues are used to cover expenses, including income taxes, payroll taxes, and compliance costs.
The individuals that end up paying taxes are either
individual consumers via buying
individual workers via lower wages to offset tax costs or
individual investors via a reduced ROI to offset tax costs.
There is no shift at all. Currently there is no tax burden on corporations. All taxes are paid by individuals; whether they be individuals in America or China buying US goods- the price of the goods includes tax costs.
The national retail sales tax represents no shift then (obviously). What the nrst would do is remove that tax component from prices of exported goods and services... hence exports become cheaper by the amount of previously embedded tax costs.
Also, foreign imports would have a 25% (or so) tax levied on them at purchase point in the US. They won't be competitive if their prices goes up that much, so they'll have to reduce profitability by an amount that provides adequate sales revenue. They will be able to do this easily because they're currently being subsidized by their host governments.
THe nrst does not represent any shift of tax burden.
The nrst does level the international trade playing field- in favor of domestic production.
B R A V O Mr. Demint!!!
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