NEWSMAX: …In at interview recorded in California, where the president is spending the day making speeches and fundraising, Obama told CNBC Senior Economics Reporter Steve Liesman that American companies thrive because they benefit from the best university system in the world and the best infrastructure, “although I’d like to see it do a little better on infrastructure.”
“There are a whole range of benefits that have helped to build companies, create value, create profits,” Obama said. “For you to continue to benefit from that entire architecture that helps you thrive, but move your technical address simply to avoid paying taxes is neither fair nor is it something that’s going to be good for the country over the long term.”
Companies are taking advantage of tax provisions that are “technically legal,” Obama said, but he added that most people would say the corporations are “really not doing right by the country and by American people.”… (more)
EDITOR: What we need is a total reform of our tax system. What we have never quite understood is why corporations are taxed at all since all they were supposed to be was a shield against personal liability. The answer, in the words of bank robber Willy Sutton, “Because that’s where the money is.”
While we are at it, we should create universal health care (and extension of Medicare) and pay for it with a Value Added Tax. This would free up our businesses to be more competitive abroad and reduce the cost of health care from 18% of Gross National Product to about 11%.
