Bush May Try to Cut Corporate Tax Rates-Cites Need To Compete Globally

[babylonsister]

Bush May Try to Cut Corporate Tax Rates
President Cites Need To Compete Globally

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 9, 2007; Page A01

President Bush said yesterday that he is considering a fresh plan to cut tax rates for U.S. corporations to make them more competitive around the world, an initiative that could further inflame a battle with the Democratic Congress over spending and taxes and help define the remainder of his tenure.

Advisers presented Bush with a series of ideas to restructure corporate taxes, possibly eliminating narrowly targeted breaks to pay for a broader, across-the-board rate cut. In an interview with a small group of journalists afterward, Bush said he was "inclined" to send a corporate tax package to Congress, although he expressed uncertainty about its political viability.

The president's comments came as he tried to calm volatile stock and mortgage markets and reassure the country that the economy is fundamentally strong. Despite mounting concern over the downturn in the housing market, he dismissed proposals advanced by prominent Democrats to grant government-chartered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more freedom to buy mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. And he ruled out any taxpayer bailout of lenders threatened by the subprime home-loan crisis.

In a 48-minute conversation on an array of economic issues, Bush also warned China not to start a trade war, blamed Congress for not doing more to shore up infrastructure such as the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last week, and pushed back against Democratic presidential candidates who are promising to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The focus on economic issues on Bush's last day in Washington before leaving town today for most of the rest of the month reflected a White House strategy to confront Democrats on tax and spending issues. With most of his second-term domestic legislative agenda in tatters and his strategy in Iraq under bipartisan fire, Bush appears eager to return to familiar issues that animated the beginning of his presidency and might rally disaffected Republicans behind him again.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/08/AR2007080802468.html

[Clark2008]

1. And the Republicans complain about poor people getting welfare?

:eyes:

Tax cuts aren't going to make them competitive - universal health care will.

[mediaman007]

5. I agree! I never understood why corporate America didn't support

universal health care. Why wouldn't they want to shed those costs.

Instead they allow the insurance industry to call the shots.

[rfranklin]

7. Because it's a slippery slope toward empowering employees...

They must be kept fearful of losing their jobs or they will do no work.

[ThomWV]

2. And just what Congress does he expect to pass this legislation for him?

I only ask because the old one he used to use is gone now.

[lostnotforgotten]

3. Corporate Taxes are Now The Lowest Of Modern Tax History

Any lower and they will be virtually zero.

Oops, one forgot that's what Bush wants.

[liberal N proud]

4. More of the "less government" game the Republicons play

Was last week not enough example of what less government and tax cuts buy us?


How many more bridges must collapse, or steam pipes burst under our streets?

[baldguy]

6. Compete globally?

Universal health care, guaranteed college for everyone, expansion of mass transit, higher fuel economy standards, etc etc etc....

We should be competing with France, Germany & Japan - not Mexico, Indonesia & China.