I grew up in a family hanging on by our fingertips to a place in the middle class. Back then, America invested in kids like me; we had a lot of opportunities. Today, Washington lets big corporations like G.E. pay nothing – zero – in taxes, while kids are left drowning in debt to get an education.
Warren should know better.
– How can she not understand how harmful corporate taxes are? Here’s the OECD: “Corporate taxes are found to be most harmful for growth, followed by personal income taxes, and then consumption taxes.”
– How can she not understand who bears the burden of corporate taxes? It’s workers. AEI economists Kevin Hassett and Aparna Mathur have found that “corporate tax rates affect wage levels across countries. Higher corporate taxes lead to lower wages. A 1 percent increase in corporate tax rates is associated with nearly a 1 percent drop in wage rates.”
– How can she not understand that “corporate income taxes have a highly significant and negative effect on long-term growth?”(Via the Tax Foundation.)
Indeed, economists on the left and right have argued in favor of scrapping the corporate income tax. It would at least be intellectually honest if Warren came out in favor of doing that and, perhaps, raising income tax rates to offset the revenue loss.