NPR's Michele Norris Wonders if U.S. Can 'Afford' a Job-Creating Tax Holiday
NPR's Michele Norris expressed the liberal skepticism of any tax incentive to spur job growth on Tuesday's All Things Considered during an interview of Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Otellini proposed a tax holiday for any company that built a new factory in the U.S. Norris replied, "Can this country afford that right now?"
The host asked the CEO about job creation near the end of her interview. She began with a left-of-center premise: "What can the government do to create jobs or can the government create jobs?" Otellini offered a free market solution:
OTELLINI: Well, I mean, the most important thing that the government can do to create jobs is get out of the way, right? Make sure that the regulations for building new factories are easy to get. You can get a new permitting process. The second thing you can do is start attracting human capital....And the third thing is now a new investment capital, and one of the ideas, you know, that I happen to like is anyone that wants to build a new factory in this country, whether it's an American firm or a foreign firm, why don't we give them a five-year tax holiday? It doesn't cost anything, right? You're just deferring the tax revenues that you would ordinarily get. But, meanwhile, you get a factory and you get jobs, and the present value of that, when you look at a factory kind of environment is very, very lucrative. You say, this makes sense now to put a factory here and everybody wins.
Norris then offered her liberal question about being able to "afford" a tax holiday and continued her skepticism after Otellini gave a further explanation:
NORRIS: Can this country afford that right now?
OTELLINI: Well, it doesn't cost anything, right? Right now, you're not getting the investment, you know, and you're not getting the incremental tax revenue. Here you get the investment and you'll get the tax revenue-
NORRIS: Eventually.
OTELLINI: Five years out.
If Otellini wanted to zing Norris, he could have asked her if the U.S. can afford to continue funding NPR's liberal bias.
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Comments
TYPICAL LIBERAL
Submitted by OldJarhead77 on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 12:04pm.
"On Tues all things considered..." (which should be named all LIBERAL sides considered) Michele Norris showed America just how beholden to big government LIBERALS are!! I swear I don't think these MORONS could wipe themselves without a 200 pg government printed and authorized manual telling them how to do it,Sounds fair
Submitted by Rush to Judgement on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 12:39pm.
But there seems to be missing information from the story. Companies pay taxes on many different things, from payroll taxes to income tax. I presume for the sake of this story that the tax holiday only applies to federal income tax.
Of course corruption would ruin this idea from the get go. As simple as it is to change the name of a corporation, companies would simply switch names and file new articles of incorporation under the guise of new business, an advantage pretty much anyone in business would pursue.
I don't like it. Although we are talking about a CEO of a private entity whose legislative proposals are pretty much ignored by congress.
Not necessarily
Submitted by Dave81 on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 1:52pm.
I disagree. You might have some small business that try to do that, but one crucial thing that keeps a business in business is establishing a name for themselves. Do you really see Google or Apple changing their name every 5 years? They wouldn't, because people know Google and Apple. The brand is part of the product. Even for small businesses, people get used to going to "Company X" for whatever service they provide, and when "Company X" suddenly becomes "Company Y", even if people understand it's the same company, they're going to think that more than just the name has changed, and that could hurt their business.Lucky Goldstar
Submitted by Rush to Judgement on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 2:41pm.
Remember them? Cheap electronics available at K-Mart and Radio Shack, stuff that would break as soon as the 3 month warrantee was up.
Then they changed their name to LG, and regained a huge share of the cellphone market. Today LG is known for innovation and quality in LCD and LED TVs, quite a laughable notion for the Radio Shack days.
Another example would be in the way business owners relationships with one another evolve. A company may be an LLC, but switch to an LLLC, or even a corporation if one business owner decides to leave the company.
Any legislation introduced along these lines would be full of loopholes allowing for even more companies to take advantage of a tax holiday.
Not new business
Submitted by Model850 on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 2:43pm.
The proposal was for a company to build a new factory, not just open a new business. Makes it harder to "game" the system since it requires capital investment and not just lawyers.
HEY BLONDE - you are good!
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 3:05pm.
.Yes, well....
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 3:08pm.
It is what it is.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Wow Blonde*
Submitted by cajun2 on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 3:12pm.
Damn that was fast. You're good!
Well, SoL is the bird dog
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 3:29pm.
Look at his profile!
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
"Let the games begin" — Marcus Aurelius
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 3:30pm.
.Or, we could defund NPR.
Submitted by johnsonl on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 2:03pm.
That would save millions!Oooooops
Submitted by Rush to Judgement on Wed, 03/16/2011 - 2:55pm.
In that case, it brings me back to my initial question, specifically which taxes are we talking about?