Good Lord! Does Bachmann have a clue?
January 17, 2008 by cornerhousecomments
Over at Think Progress they have a story featuring comments made by Minnesota’s Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Apparently she made this comment:
I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.
What can I say? According to her standards I must be a slacker.
Listen to the song by the Kieran Ridge Band
Peace & solidarity,
CHC
I am not sure if your question “Does Bachmann have a clue?” is an oxymoran or a question about a moran !
Bachmann is still following the old talking points … remember Bush pronounced the economy “safe and sound” on December 18 because “People are working; productivity is high”. Further Bush told business and community leaders at a gathering of Rotary Club members on December 17, 2007, “the underpinning is good”.
Contrast Bachmann with someone who travels his district … talking to folks at Hy-Vee … Walz gave this speech the day after Bush gave such glowing review of the economy and now less than 30 days later, the White House is talking stimulus.
Bachmann’s comments need to be looked at in what she is advocating … lower corporate taxes.
So, let’s talk about corporate taxes.
One of the common statements made when people defend the deficit is that it needs to be evaluated in terms of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In 1965, U.S. corporate income taxes were 4.0% of our GDP, compared to 2.4% of GDP in the other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. But by 2004 (the last year for which there is complete OECD data), U.S. corporate taxes had fallen to only 1.9% of our GDP, compared to 3.2% of other OECD countries.
In fact, America is number #27 out of 29 countries.
But maybe you get what you pay for.
Look at how America stacks up against other countries in Math, Reading and Science on this chart. Oh, wait … America didn’t crack the top 25. Overall, Finland would be number 1 … and on the corporate tax chart, Finland is #4. OK, so you say that Finland is a small country. Well, consider our neighbor to the north, Canada … # 4 in Reading, #7 in Math, and # 3 in Science … for corporate taxes, they are #11. Canada is now the largest foreign supplier of oil to the US to the tune of some 2.25 million barrels of oil a day … so I suppose that when we buy Canadian oil, the oil company pays corporate income tax to Canada, and the Canadian government educates their children … who in time, with their more educated workforce will take our jobs. There is something wrong with this picture.
But Bachmann is not only focused on corporate taxes, but also income taxes … if you read my commentary on her plan, you will quickly know who wins and who loses.