OPINION:
The Republican tax plan lowers the corporate tax rate, citing the fact that America has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. They want to bring jobs to the United States by lowering the tax rate, but none of this makes sense. Companies don’t make their decisions about where to locate solely on tax rates. They make their decisions based on cheap labor. Lowering the tax rate does little, if anything at all, to drive the economy.
America has a very strong, robust and innovative economy with millions of consumers. The most fundamental concept of economics is supply and demand. I doubt that companies such as Apple are sitting around thinking, ’Hey, let’s lower our prices so more people can afford to buy the new iPhone X.’
Thus, lowering the corporate tax rate doesn’t translate to foreign companies wanting to run to set up shop in America because the price just went down.
It’s wrong to run a corporate fire sale at the expense of American consumers who can barely afford to feed their families. The plain truth is, the average corporate tax rate is about 28 percent, which is passed down to consumers anyway. If Republicans really want to help the economy grow, they would pass a tax bill that puts more money in the hands of people who need it the most: the middle class.
WILLIAM J. BOOKER
University Park, Ill.
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