At National Review Online, Grover Norquist calls for scrapping the Repatriation Tax. “The United States, unlike most other developed nations, taxes the international income of its companies when they bring that income home. …Having the highest corporate-tax rate in the developed world doesn’t help. When factoring in state income taxes, the U.S. rate is nearly 40 percent…. For most companies, the smarter move is to not pay extra taxes, keep the money overseas, and invest it in jobs over there. The “repatriation tax” we impose is one of the most singularly stupid tax policies in existence today. The result was predictable and welcome, and should serve as a blueprint for future policy. In the low-tax year of 2005, some $318 billion of deferred foreign earnings was repatriated by American companies to the United States. As a result, corporate-tax receipts rose by $17 billion that year. This money was used to pay down debt, shore up pension plans, increase wages, and create jobs.”
ATR’s Grover Norquist and Kelly William Cobb argue in favor of the “Wireless Auction” in POLITICO. They point out “one big reason for higher spending has been inefficient and costly investments in public safety and national security. If lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are serious about providing this vital government service while passing real savings on to taxpayers, there is an important solution that both parties can embrace: auctioning spectrum…By reallocating instead of auctioning, the spectrum is likely to cause further federal, state and local deficit spending — governments would have to appropriate funds to build and run a network on the D Block for public safety…Auctioning the D Block and then building the broadband network that public safety needs in partnership with private carriers could save taxpayers $22 billion — compared with a stand-alone, government-run network.”
The editors at the Detroit News are “cautiously enthusiastic over President Barack Obama's pledge to get government off the backs of American businesses”. “It is encouraging that Obama has dropped the anti-business rhetoric that marked his first two years in office and now recognizes that overregulating has an impact on job creation….The Center for Fiscal Accountability estimates the cost of complying with government regulations consumes 18.4 percent of national income. Economists at Washington University in St. Louis peg the dollar cost at $1.5 trillion a year. That's a lot of money going to paperwork instead of the investment that creates jobs…. The caution in our enthusiasm for his commitment is Obama's track record of tilting the field against business…And even as the president is promising more common sense in regulating, his Environmental Protection Agency is enacting carbon emissions limits that will throttle energy production and limit growth.”