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
My plan is simple. They can’t increase their pay unless the shareholders approve it. The shareholders own the company. Why shouldn’t their approval be required? That’s capitalism, not socialism.
I'll go for that if the voters get to vote on politicians' pay.
Otherwise, shut up.
It’s not Capitalism to require the stockholders to mandate salary caps. It’s a bad idea that does more harm than whatever you think it’s supposed to accomplish.
Is someone you know making too much money? I thought the Democrats have a tax plan that will take care of this perceived problem.
Why not establish corporate tax domains where the high salary earners are taxed within the context of the corporation at killer rates so their earnings can be redistributed to the other employees and to shareholders. /s
If you don’t like what a CEO gets paid sell the friggen stock. If you do not own the stock you do NOT have a dog in the hunt.
How do you figure that?
The stockholders are the owners of the company, and the providers of the capital. The executives are just employees.
Usually the Boards of Directors and executives play musical chairs with all the upper corporate positions, all the while ripping off the stockholders and the lower-level employees.
Corporate corruption isn't going to cure itself -- there's too much money at stake.
Typical McCain stupid idea.”
I think he is stupid. He comes up with this kind of crap without bother to think through the ramifications. America corporations will go more offshore.
Plus how is he going to regulate private companies. This whole thing and many of the comments here just drip with stupidity.
BULL! Every American with a 401K or mutual fund has a dog in this hunt. The fund managers, as institutional investors, have a fiduciary responsibility to their own shareholders to limit losses through corporate corruption.
Don't recall McCain saying that but so what? Wall Street is already regulated.
“too many boards are padding their own pockets or not watching over their shareholders’ rights and interests.”
Sell the friggen stock - after admitting you were a dope to buy it in the first place. And if you do not own the stock how is this your business? Huh?
He isn't talking about private companies.
He is talking about public corporations, companies that are allowed to offer their stock on the public market. They are publicly owned by public stockholders.
You are so right. I bet half the people here that think this is a good idea never bought a stock in their life.
Regulated CEO pay? WTF
“I’d love to know who is advising McCain. “
Me too. I have been asking this question for awhile. I know he had the La Raza guy but beyond that it is fuzzy.
Should have read last line instead of headline: “all aspects of a CEO’s pay, including any severance arrangements, must be approved by shareholders”. That’s not regulation, that’s the way it should be imo.
Bull you. Get a new fund with a fund manager you like. If your 401K program is full of crap bitch there. The board is voted in by the largest share holders. If you have a crappy 401K or you can’t manage your money screw you. If you do not own the stock what friggen difference is it. And McCain is not opposed to corruption just CEO salary. Ask your boy McCain about Carly. Ask McCain about Ketting. This is about populist pandering. Don’t be stupid.
So.
>> >> It’s not Capitalism to require the stockholders to mandate salary caps.
>> How do you figure that?
Do you want the Feds to pass law that requires stockholders to mandate salary caps?
“That’s not regulation, that’s the way it should be imo.”
It most certainly is a regulation if the feds force it. If McCain wasn’t a socialist he would say, “I recommend that people do not buy stocks unless ‘all aspects of a CEO’s pay, including any severance arrangements, must be approved by shareholders’”. When he says that it will be a federal regulation he steps over the line.
“They are publicly owned by public stockholders. “
Well in public markets you have liquidity and you can sell. For private companies the thingee that has you all sweated up is worse.
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