Monday, May 4, 2009

"Their fair share" equals double-taxation in Barack Obama's world.

"These companies are evil! They're stealing your money and jobs! I'm going to make them pay their fair share!"
Obama's new plan to "eliminate tax loopholes" for businesses which do business overseas is to tax them twice.
He gave a brief teleprompted speech to introduce his plan, during which he revealed, once again, his hatred for capitalism and business, and his love of class-warfare politics. He again claimed businesses shirked their responsibilities and he will now make them pay their fair share. He will make them "sacrifice". It is not "sacrifice" if it is forced.
What this amounts to is double-taxation. Businesses who follow the law, and that is most of the legitimate businesses in this country, will now pay US taxes in addition to the taxes paid in the foreign countries in which they operate. This means the money from overseas operations which companies would have reinvested into their business in the US will be taxed further, reducing their investment toward growth here in the US, reducing their overall business potential, and reducing jobs.
For example, troubled General Motors, or, I guess now "Government Motors" does quite a bit of business in China, where their profits are already taxed by China. Obama's plan would add additional US taxes. Toyota, which also does business in China and pays taxes in China, does not have to pay additional taxes to Japan for their profits in China. Which company has the advantage?
Obama claimed his plan will save American taxpayers $210 billion over ten years. That means he projects tax revenue. What he neglected to say is that tax revenue will come from us, the taxpayers. Businesses pass added taxes on to consumers as higher costs. This is the only way they can stay in business. When the cost of production increases, be it through increased costs of materials or increased production costs, or increased taxes, the result is increased product cost for the consumer. For consumers of necessity items at discount stores, such as school supplies or kitchen utensils at Walmart or Target, this is a tax increase.
At the same time, he claims his plan will offer $75 billion in tax credits to companies to not "ship jobs overseas". Assuming these tax credits actually do offset increased business costs due to tax increases, the American taxpayer is still on the hook for $135 billion.
This will not work. But Obama's class-warfare policies level the playing field by bringing people down instead of helping people up.

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