From the Wall Street Journal:
America the UncompetitiveAugust 15, 2008; Page A14
"The new international tax rankings are out for 2008, and congratulations to Washington, D.C., are again in order. Our political class has managed to maintain America's rank with the second highest corporate tax rate in the world at 39.3% (average combined federal and state).Only Japan is slightly higher overall, though if you are silly enough to base a corporation in California, Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or other states with high corporate levies, your tax rate on business income is even higher than in Tokyo..."
(Yet somehow, the Japanese automakers still manage to manufacture more reliable cars than our Big 3. )
"The average European nation has tax rates on corporate income 10 percentage points lower than the U.S., but those countries on average raise 50% more as a share of GDP in corporate taxes than does the U.S., according to a 2007 study by the Treasury Department."
For a minute I was at a loss, thinking maybe it was time to re-evaluate my stance on taxes, but then realized I've lived in Germany and went shopping in France. There's no way Americans pay more in taxes than the citizens of "Old Europe." Do Americans want to pay $3 for a little liter of gas the way they do in Europe? Do American CEOs want to get paid what German CEOs or Japanese CEOS get paid? Does the Wall Street Journal advocate a French style government subsidized health care system? Do they want to raise the top income bracket to 42% like it is in Germany? By all means, let's copy the Europeans.