Food Stamp Cuts Twice as Deep in New GOP Proposal 02 Aug 2013 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are considering a new food stamp bill that would cut nutrition assistance by twice as much as a previous bill that died on the House floor last month. The previous measure would have reduced spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by $20.5 billion over 10 years, or roughly 2 percent of the program's $800 billion cost in that time frame... A GOP aide confirmed the House [mal]nutrition working group was nearing a proposal that could cut as much as $40 billion from SNAP, but said the framework had not been finalized.
Corporate lobbyists are preparing to present arguments when Congress returns about why corporate taxes should be lowered. (The President has already indicated a willingness to lower them.) But they're lies. You need to know them so you can spread the truth.
(1) U.S. corporate tax rates are higher than the tax rates of other big economies. Wrong. After deductions and tax credits, the average corporate tax rate in the U.S. is lower. According to the Congressional Research Service ("International Corporate Tax Rate Comparisons and Policy Implications, 2011") the United States has an effective corporate tax rate of 27.1%, compared to an average of 27.7% in the other large economies of the world.
(2) U.S. corporations need lower taxes in order to make investments in new jobs. Wrong again. Big corporations are sitting on almost $2 trillion of cash they don't know what to do with. Rather than investing in expansion, they're buying back their own stocks or raising dividends. They have no economic incentive to expand unless or until consumers want to buy more, but consumer spending is pinched because the middle class keeps shrinking and the median wage, adjusted for inflation, keeps dropping.
(2) U.S. corporations need a tax break in order to be globally competitive. Baloney. Most big U.S. corporations are not really American companies at all. They've been creating more jobs abroad than in the U.S. A growing percent of their customers are outside the U.S. Their investors are global. They do their R&D all over the world. And they park their profits wherever taxes are lowest. The "competitiveness" of American companies is a meaningless term.
(1) U.S. corporate tax rates are higher than the tax rates of other big economies. Wrong. After deductions and tax credits, the average corporate tax rate in the U.S. is lower. According to the Congressional Research Service ("International Corporate Tax Rate Comparisons and Policy Implications, 2011") the United States has an effective corporate tax rate of 27.1%, compared to an average of 27.7% in the other large economies of the world.
(2) U.S. corporations need lower taxes in order to make investments in new jobs. Wrong again. Big corporations are sitting on almost $2 trillion of cash they don't know what to do with. Rather than investing in expansion, they're buying back their own stocks or raising dividends. They have no economic incentive to expand unless or until consumers want to buy more, but consumer spending is pinched because the middle class keeps shrinking and the median wage, adjusted for inflation, keeps dropping.
(2) U.S. corporations need a tax break in order to be globally competitive. Baloney. Most big U.S. corporations are not really American companies at all. They've been creating more jobs abroad than in the U.S. A growing percent of their customers are outside the U.S. Their investors are global. They do their R&D all over the world. And they park their profits wherever taxes are lowest. The "competitiveness" of American companies is a meaningless term.
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