Posted on 06/10/2008 5:17:40 AM PDT by BloodOrFreedom
Republican White House candidate John McCain will promise on Tuesday to lower corporate tax rates if he wins the U.S. presidency and ease the tax burden on middle-class workers to help revive the faltering economy.
The Arizona senator, who has wrapped up his party's presidential nomination, also would propose a simpler, alternative tax system and insist that chief executives' pay and severance packages have shareholder approval.
"No matter which of us wins in November, there will be change in Washington. The question is what kind of change?" McCain will tell a conference for small businesses, referring to his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
"Will we enact the single largest tax increase since the Second World War as my opponent proposes, or will we keep taxes low for families and employers?" he will say, according to excerpts released before his speech.
McCain will pledge to act quickly to lower corporate taxes from "the second highest in the world to one on par with our trading partners to keep businesses and jobs in this country."
He will propose a law to allow companies to expense new equipment and technology in their first year.
He supports keeping capital gains taxes low, doubling a tax exemption for children, and phasing out the "alternative minimum tax" which he said would save some 25 million middle-class families up to $2,000 in a year.
On Monday Obama drew a sharp contrast with McCain, his opponent in the November election, accusing him of wanting to widen President George W. Bush's tax cuts and plunge the United States deeper into debt.
He charged that McCain's support for extending Bush's tax cuts would allow $2 trillion in corporate tax breaks.
U.S. taxes were too complicated overhaul, McCain will say in his speech, in which he will argue for an alternative system.
"As president, I will propose an alternative tax system. When this reform is enacted, all who wish to file under the current system could still do so," he will say.
"Everyone else could choose a vastly less complicated system with two tax rates and a generous standard deduction."
McCain criticizes Obama for wanting to increase dividend and capital gains taxes and aiming to raise the minimum wage and link it to an index.
But he also takes aim at top corporate executives with big salaries and excessive severance packages.
"Americans are right to be offended when the extravagant salaries and severance deals of CEOs ... bear no relation to the success of the company or the wishes of shareholders," he will say, adding that some of those chief executives helped bring on the country's housing crisis and market troubles.
"If I am elected president, I intend to see that wrongdoing of this kind is called to account by federal prosecutors. And under my reforms, all aspects of a CEO's pay, including any severance arrangements, must be approved by shareholders," he will say. (Editing by Chris Wilson
Is moron McCain going to regulate his wife’s income?
Yeah, this guy is a republican alright...
I can't believe this.
More populist left leaning bullspit from Johnny Mac ... since the race is essentially voting for or against the messiah, I have to keep asking myself why bother?
I’m not in favor of regulating CEO pay, but I am in favor or requiring stockholders to approve top management pay. The only reason why it’s so high to begin with is that the management is able to feather their own nests, and get away with it because of the loopholes and imperfections in corporate democracy.
We expressly do NOT have a right to be offended by what others own.
" You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Why should the Feds regulate how much money a person can make?
I don’t actually think he said “regulate CEO pay” but rather investigate Enron-like situations. That’s how I took it.
I like McCain’s Tax Proposals, I’m a bit dubious about the CEO pay “regulation”.
I don’t have a problem with shareholder approval being required for a large CEO compensation package, after all, it is the shareholders money that is being spent.
How that system would work in practice is another ballgame, that is where I don’t think it would work in practice.
Regulating the pay of CEOs, nets you nothing.
All you get is an inferior grade of CEO, who may not provide the best management available. And the corporation that is failing, does not yield the tax revenue of one that is expanding and growing.
The board of directors, given a free hand, will drum out the inferior CEO pretty quickly, if the corporate goals are not being met. The high rate of remuneration is an effort to attract the best there is.
None of his or the gooberment’s business.
Yea, come November, we’re screwed one way or the other.
Who do the CEO’s work for? Are they neighbors or servants to the Stockholders?
It’s quite simple: our courts have failed many times to stop legislation that is clearly unconstitutional. If they had upheld their end of the bargain, we wouldn’t be in this fix.
“Regulating the pay of CEOs, nets you nothing.”
Besides that, it’s none of the government’s businees.
Drop in the bucket. Global companies have super monopolies that are insurmountable to anyone at this point.
More socialism from the “republican” candidate.
The Board of Directors have not been drumming out underperforming CEO’s, in fact, they have been subsidizing them with pay raises.
When Denardo left Home Depot after it had lost much of it’s value, he was handed a 20 million dollar door prize only to be hired by Chrysler Motors.
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