Bill O'reilly of the Fox News show "The O'reilly Factor"
has come up with a way to improve America's economy in the long run, while
relieving some of the economic hurdles on the people. Allow me to give
you a brief overview of his plan in today's issue.
His plan:
1) Drop the corporate tax rate by
20%.
This is the income tax on businesses that
is so burdensome to small and medium income business and what causes most big
businesses to leave the country. Right now, America has the highest
corporate income tax rate at well over 35%, which has put the United States
behind nearly every industrialized nation in the world. It is the reason why
Apple and other tech companies send their products overseas to be built in
Chinese factories over our own. By dropping the tax low enough, it not
only allows for some of these jobs to return to the United States, but means
businesses from other nations will leave them to set up here in the U.S.
And that means more jobs.
2) Lower Capital Gains to 15%
Here we have the tax on the stock market.
The tax was initially raised during the Obama administration and has
become a detriment to the growth of businesses. The reason being, is that
businesses need investors’ money so that they may build new factories and even
hire new workers so that they can be successful. A high capital gains tax
prevents that and makes U.S. businesses less competitive globally as well as
domestically. So by dropping this tax lower, businesses of all sizes can
grow again.
3) A six month tax holiday on out of
country investments, with the stipulation the money coming back to the United
State be spent on helping the United States.
In this case, Mr. O'reilly is talking
about the money stashed away by corporations in other countries. Mr.
O'reilly wishes to see this money not only brought home, but spent to increase
the number of jobs available to American citizens. If this is feasible, I am
not sure for I don't like the idea of telling people how to spend their money.
4) Raise the minimum wage to $10.
Everything in the previous three parts was
specifically to get to this point for Mr. O'reilly. He wanted it to be
feasible to raise the minimum wage without hurting businesses of any kind or
causing more job losses which can result from minimum wage increases.
This allows more spending money in everyone's pockets and at the same
time replaces the tax revenue lost by the government with the aforementioned
tax reductions.
Conclusion: While I like Mr. O'reilly's plan, I
have and others have critics. Mr. James Carville (A Democratic Party
strategist) actually liked the plan, but wanted it to go further with a flat
tax for all economic groups. Likewise, economic commentator and news
anchor Lou Dobbs wished to see a tax cut on the lower income classes as well
(he leans democratic). Mr. O’reilly argued back that those ideas he
supports, but his plan is for an immediate economic boon, while the others
would need to be campaigned for to gather support (which is true). I
myself would like to see all capital gains taxes abolished so as to give the
economy more freedom of movement and thus allow poorer investors a shot at
becoming rich. The corporate tax rate taxes total revenue earned over
actual profit which hinders businesses and makes it harder for them to pay
taxes. So if a flat tax, and my two little additions were implemented,
then the economy would expand to unprecedented levels with small businesses
being capable of taking on medium to big businesses. In essence speeding
up the economy to its natural speed. So to this extent, while Mr.
O'reilly's plan is most workable and would be welcomed, it may be small change
to what can really be done.
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