Give President Obama credit, said The New York Times in an editorial, for at least trying to stop some of the biggest and most profitable U.S. companies from shortchanging the Treasury on taxes. In 2004, U.S. multinationals paid only $16 billion in U.S. taxes on $700 billion in foreign earnings, for example. But Obama's tax tinkering doesn't go far enough—let’s hope this is just a “warm-up act.”
Obama is right that the current tax system is “clumsy,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, but his solution is “antigrowth, job-destroying, protectionist,” and “unlikely” to raise the $210 billion he predicts. It would be better for U.S. companies, and ultimately U.S. coffers, to slash our “uncompetitive” 35 percent corporate tax rate and remove loopholes.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Quiz of The Week: 12 – 19 JulyHave you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
Do we need more right-wing scientists?Talking Point Academics have a 'responsibility' to demonstrate why research matters to people who are not politically left-leaning, says Wellcome boss
-
The week's best photosIn Pictures A missile garden, a line of lava, and more
