Sanchez and Others Further Goals of Political Elites

Yesterday I was driving along to a Job site when I heard Rick Sanchez on the Radio talking about how Millionaires get away with only paying 10 and 15% in income taxes.  So I promptly called up WIOD and explained to him that he was mistaken, when people invest.... oops, he cut me off and hung up on me and proceeded to say "... In the Cayman Islands and other places to hide their money and keep from paying taxes".

Wow, I thought to myself.  Is this guy REALLY this misinformed or is he just trying to gain a Populist position to increase his ratings.  After all, he did just recently take up the 3PM to 6PM slot on WIOD.  I was heartened to hear that many of those calling tried to set him straight on how income earned ANYWHERE in the world, had to be paid by U.S. Citizens.  Even if that income was earned outside of this country and we are one of a very few countries that actually does this.  As an example, a French or British citizen living and earning money in the U.S. isn't subject to French or British taxes, but the reverse is not true!  We REALLY have one of the worst taxing structures in the country.  Back to the story though, next thing you know there was a guy that called and agreed with Rick.  He proclaimed that he worked for a Private Equity Fund, where the Millionaires did nothing but try to avoid taxation by "hiding" funds in other countries.

I tried calling back but of course they wouldn't take my calls anymore so I guess I'll have to rage against the machine here on MY format.

So here's what I would have said, if I had actually had a chance to talk.

First of all Rick, getting a paycheck is not the same as investing in a Private Equity Fund, Mutual Fund or any other kind of investment.  Why?  Because just as you didn't walk into WIOD and hand them over a Million dollars to invest in their operation, the average working stiff doesn't INVEST in his employer.  He's just there with his hand out at the end of the week asking to get paid for the time he put in.  You see Rick, once you get your paycheck and AFTER you've already paid your taxes on that paycheck (which for you probably averages around 30+ Percent) you can now choose to invest that leftover money in some sort of Mutual Fund or other investment that will hopefully create jobs somewhere.  Rick, are you telling me that we should tax that money which you are essentially GAMBLING in some sort of investment, at the same levels of taxation as regular income?  

Of course not, this is why we have preferential treatment for investments, because otherwise what's the point in taking a gamble, if when you win the Government is going to take half?  As for "Hiding" investments in other countries, I think that people are making business decisions based upon the confiscatory nature of our Federal Government.  If Norway is charging their companies HALF the taxes that we do, doesn't it make business sense to move some of your manufacturing there?  Ask the guys that made the two biggest cruise ships in the world, and they would probably tell you that they wouldn't be able to compete if they made those ships in the U.S. because of the tax and regulatory hurdles.  The same goes for almost any manufacturing operation.  Just look at what Canada is doing.  Even though their dollar has risen by almost 40% in the past 10 years, manufacturing in Canada is up.  Why?  They've lowered Corporate Rates to around 25% (15% Federal and around 10% Provincial).  Here's the kicker.  Even with the lowered rates, revenue is up from all the additional economic activity.  To top it off, even though we, their biggest trading partner have been mired in a deep recession, they've managed to maintain an unemployment rate of around 2% lower than we have, despite the fact that historically Canada has had an unemployment rate of around 3% HIGHER than we have!

Dial Back Spending to 2005 Levels and it will match our Revenues

So here's the thing, STOP empowering Politicians by repeating their claims as facts.  Corporate tax rates in the U.S. are higher than all G7 Nations, tax collection in the U.S. is projected to be 2.7 Trillion, a record, yet as usual they're spending a Trillion over that amount!  The real problem isn't tax collection, it's the insane levels of spending.  Does anyone even realize that since his first year in Office, Obama has spent nearly a Trillion dollars each and every year MORE than what Bush spent for 7 out of 8 years?  We RARELY see reporters talk about how cuts are NEVER cuts, the politicians create a baseline budget of 3 to 10% above the previous year and if the number is less than that it's called a cut, even though it's actually an increase.  The ONLY reason they're able to get away with this lie over and over again is because of people like Rick Sanchez and other media types that REPEAT the lie.

DEBT LIMIT - A GUIDE TO AMERICAN FEDERAL DEBT MADE EASY.

For those with short attention spans:
Total Household Debt:                          $140,000.00
Household Income:                                 $21,000.00
Household Spending:                              $38,200.00
New Debt:                                             $16,500.00
Amount Cut:                                                $385.00

Translated to the Federal Government:

Total Federal Debt:             $14,000,000,000,000.00
Federal Income:                    $2,100,000,000,000.00
Federal Spending:                 $3,820,000,000,000.00
New Debt:                            $1,650,000,000,000.00
Amount Cut:                              $38,500,000,000.00

Either way you look at it, it's only about 1% of the budget.  Let's keep in mind this video was made about a year ago with the original budget deal.  The new budget deal calls for "800 Billion" in cuts... [over 10 years], or about 80 Billion a year.  Pretty much all the other numbers are about the same, except the income has increased to around 2.3 Trillion a year.  The new "cuts" will amount to only around 2% or about double the original budget deal a year ago.

If the new numbers were put into the video the amount the guy had "cut" from his budget would be around $800.00 a year, instead of $385.00 a year.  Either way we're talking about tiny, insignificant "cuts" that only perpetuate the incredible levels of spending.

How the U.S. Tax Code is destroying Manufacturing

Another Abandoned Factory Building in America

We have a Crisis here in America, and while it's something that many are talking about, the solutions that are being proposed will not help and will only exacerbate the situation and make it much, much worse.

Manufacturing in the U.S. is in STEEP decline, but not for the reasons we've been told.  The truth is that most politicians don't want to talk about the real reason, mostly because of how our media here in the U.S. will handle this kind of coverage.

According to The American Prospect, between 2001 through the end of 2009, American Manufacturing has lost over 42,400 factories.  YES that's not a typo,  Factories not jobs.  Each of these factories employed an average of around 400 employees!  While there are no good statistics between 2009 to current, a trip through places like Ohio and Michigan will tell you that the situation has only deteriorated.

Almost every article that you read on this issue will tell you that the reason manufacturers are leaving the U.S. is because labor costs are cheaper in China.  While this may be true for low cost, low tech products, the truth is that U.S. manufacturers enjoy a MASSIVE edge in efficiency that translates to lower total manufacturing costs in the U.S. vs overseas counterparts.  A look at the Steel industry confirms this.  The Chinese use over 10X the man hours to produce a ton of steel vs. the U.S. and similar comparisons can be made everywhere.  If the issue was simply labor costs being cheaper in China, you would see the Ship building industry in Norway decimated, since they have some of the highest cost of labor in the world.  Same for the Japanese and the Germans.  They are not what you would call "Low Cost Labor".  Yet their Manufacturing sectors remain extremely robust.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines provides a fantastic reference point for this.  They recently purchased 2 ships in Norway costing upwards of 1.5 Billion Dollars each.  Think about this, the average U.S. Dock worker gets a total compensation of around $80K a year, including benefits.  They are considered one of the most efficient in the world, requiring less man hours for production than almost any laborers in the world.  Why then would the ship building company not have these ships built in the U.S., considering that in Norway similar workers cost a total of around $120K per employee in total compensation and in U.S. Dollars?  It's very simple, it has to do with our expensive and extremely complicated Tax code.  Norway actually has one of the highest individual tax rates in the world.  Most middle class families pay between 40 to 60% of their income in taxes (Including SS).  However, not wanting to kill the Golden Goose, Norway keeps Corporate taxes fairly low at an average of 28%.  Additionally, capital expenditures and interest payments are fully tax deductible.  What does this mean?  Well, Let's say that there's a ship builder here in the State of NY.  Between City, Local and Federal taxes, that ship builder will have to pay around 45% in taxes.  Additionally, capital expenses must be depreciated over a 5 year period.  This means that if the manufacturer has to upgrade their facilities every year in order to stay competitive, that company STILL must pay taxes on 80% of the money used in the capital expenditure.  This is a HUGE competitive DISADVATAGE that our companies have to bear here in the U.S.  Not only are we telling our companies that they have to pay taxes on improvements to their facilities, but additionally we're going to charge them more than just about any other country in the world.

Why Nothing Is Done

The reason why we don't see anyone doing anything with this is very simple.  Instead of talking about the real reason why manufacturing is declining in the U.S. Politicians would rather paint enemies and talk about how this person or that company is "exporting" jobs.  If anyone dares talk about reducing tax rates on Corporations, they are considered a "Shill" for the rich and the "Right Wing Extremist" and dismissed as idiots.  If we can't, as Americans face reality and realize that we're giving away the store, by keeping manufacturing tax rates so high here in the U.S.  We're going to continue losing more and more jobs to countries overseas that have much friendlier policies towards Corporations.  For those of you who say that it's still more patriotic to keep the jobs here and not to be so "Greedy", I'm sorry but in the world of manufacturing simply does not cut it.  When Sony or HTC or Samsung upgrades their product line every 6 months, the ONLY way that a U.S. company can stay competitive is to at least match the same upgrade schedule.  If Japan, China or Korea allow these companies to fully deduct those capital expenditures, yet here in the U.S. we won't, then guess what.  Zenith, Motorola and RCA end up having to shut down their U.S. Operations because they simply CANNOT compete.

A Plan like 9, 9, 9 would definitely go a long way towards fixing a lot of these issues, but with Cain out of the race, the truth is that his plan is a long shot for anyone to pick up.  Not because it's a bad plan, but because most Politicans don't want to be seen as ripping off someone else's idea.  Well, here's an idea that any politican can rip off from me and I won't say a word.  The 10, 10, 10 Plan with no national sales tax:

• 10% Flat Corporate Tax Rate
• 10% Flat Personal Income Tax
• 10% Flat Import Tax

It has all the advantages of Cain's plan, without the disadvantage of the National Sales Tax, while giving our manufacturers a slight edge over imports, while at the same time eliminating the taxation barriers they previously had to overcome.