FREE STANDING FACTS

Did you know by the end of this year the U.S. will have the highest corporate rate of any industrialized country?

Did you know that unless Congress acts, the residents and those others subject to U.S. taxation wilt pay among the highest federal personal income taxes in the world?

Did you know that because of our federal system, residents of certain "progressive" states will pay the highest personal income taxes in the world when their state rate is coupled with the federal tax rate?

Did you know that the U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world to tax both their personal and corporate citizens on a world wide basis no matter where the income was earned?

Did you know that Congress is contemplating removing the credit for corporate taxes paid to a foreign country supposedly as an incentive to "keep jobs in America?"

Did you know that Transocean, the Corporation than owned the drill rig involved in the Gulf disaster used to be a U.S. corporation but is now registered in Geneva, Switzerland? Did you ever wonder why?

Did you ever wonder whether it's easier to "keep jobs in America" or move to Geneva, Switzerland?

Did you agree with The Leader when he talked about everyone having "some skin in the game" when 52% (and growing) don't and the possible consequences of that?

Did you ever think about whether the citizens of the U.S., who are far and away the most willing and honest taxpayers in the world might begin to change and become more like, say, Italians or Mexicans if their tax burdens continue to increase with out commensurate returns?

Start thinking.

I raise these points not that any one of them is the seed for disaster. Indeed, to say that a 35% corporate tax rate is awful and must come down is certainly the mantra to the right but that argument loses it's impact when one realizes the EFFECTIVE--that is the real rate of payment--is but 8%. Too low you say? Perhaps, and indeed it may be considered too low when it is understood that that rate is achieved by corporates taking advantage of the credits, deductions and tax avoidance schemes available in the monstrosity of a tax code written, produced and operated for the benefit of tax lawyers and accountants unavailable to the average Joe. "Take away the loop-holes" screams the left, but hold on: the effective rate also happens to be a more or less competative rate when compared to the rest of the world. 35% kills American industry stone, cold D E D--dead. If this sounds a little strange, it is.

Of course if you are a politician and especially a politician of a leftward bent, this little farce can be very useful because it give one a straw man to batter all over the place except in an especially in an election year. The Leader achieved victory in '08 by battering American Industry and especially the financial sector as the new robber barons pitted against the average American. He did it brilliantly and he won big. Oddly, he gained enormous support from the very people he was battering. 90% of political contributions from Goldman Sachs supported The Leader and his party. Only one problem; he meant it and now the guys from Goldie and everybody else on the Street are staring at the very real specter of the feed bag being taken away. Poor babies; so smart and they got it all wrong. They actually believed him. And now, in the blink of an eye, the money flows are reversed. But I digress.

I raise this startling political development only to point out it is not the people who trash the system but the system itself which is designed, either from the start or thru evolution to be corrupted. There is no point in playing silly bugger, snipping about the edges and pulling up a weed in the rose bushes here and there, we have to sit back and take a whole new perspective. If we as a nation do not grow, nothing patched here and tucke there is going to matter a whit. Tomorrow, let's talk about where we can start and what effect a new direction might have.