Business being taxed out of the country

“Could a different vision yield different results? And can this country avoid the reality of providing a good environment for our world-wide companies?
The U.S. Constitution provides the executive branch and its president considerable discretion and power. Happily our president cannot run amok ... even when his name is LBJ or Richard Nixon. We are not governed by tyrants, just some who would like to be tyrants; because our Constitution works, they can’t get away with it.
But by executive order — which affect all sorts of procedures and regulations the federal government deals with every day — and by appointment of people who share his view of hinges to the catbird seats in federal departments and agencies, a president has discretionary power. Using these tools, he easily can influence the direction of the ship of state by more than just a degree or two.
Add to this the presidential ownership of the "bully pulpit" of the White House, with dozens of tame media members at his beck and call, a president who understands publicity – no just rhetoric – can leverage his structural governmental advantages even more. Mr.  Obama is not the best at this – he doesn’t hold a candle to Mr. Reagan or Mr. Clinton – but he is getting better at using the pulpit.
But that doesn’t mean he is without influence. Consider the performance of the economy; Mr. Obama came to power amid one of the worst recessions since WWII. It had been triggered by the greed of the humongous banks and their stupid management of the mortgage securities initially, but since then has been compounded by the Obama administration’s vision of what government is and what government should do to get the country back on a growth track.
Consider what has happened on the Obama watch: First, he worked with Democratic Congress and passed an expensive health-care bill the country actually did not want, pinning the substantial cost on business. (A wedge under the wheel of the business wagon, something to overcome). Second, he increased regulation of almost every Federal department by a factor of several times. (Another wedge under the wheel ...) Third, he has made it clear that he wanted to spend much more money on soft cost activity, such as welfare, job training, etc., etc. To do this, he advocated increasing taxes, preferably on the investor class and on corporations – exactly the people who create jobs! (Certainly another wedge under the wheel ...)
And there have been many more actions, all pointing to a larger and more intrusive federal government ... which has left the private side of the economy worrying and anxious about the future. Who wants to expand when the government makes it clear it wants to tax them more, and to regulate them even more? What has resulted from this administration and its vision for the future? A very slow and tepid recovery from the recession, the slowest in a half-century.
There is no enthusiasm for the future of the U.S. Trillions of dollars are being held by businesses, delaying investment (and job creation), sitting on the sidelines, waiting for better news from Washington, but getting none. Needed revisions to tax law to help get the economy moving are stuck on high center in Congress; the president has intensified partisanship in Congress at every opportunity – instead of working around it, finding compromises that would move legislation forward on a bi-partisan  basis.
We still are suffering from high un-employment (openly admitted to be over 6 percent, which means probably about 10 percent). We still have a very tepid growth rate (maybe 2.4 percent this year).
The only good news from Washington this year has been the fact the federal budget deficit is only 75 percent of what it was before the sequester ax fell on the feds last year – because Congress could not get its act together and fix the galloping budget deficit – a deficit that had been running at a rate over 4 percent of GDP!
Washington could do better for the country ... but Washington’s leadership doesn’t have the right vision. Is this just partisan ranting from a conservative Republican?
Before you conclude it is, consider the Pfizer story. This huge worldwide pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York, which made $22 billions last year, has announced U.S. corporate income taxes are too high at 35 percent. They baldly told the country ‘the U.S. corporate income tax rate MUST be reduced to a level charged in other parts of the developed world (about 25 percent) ... or they will move their headquarters, together with its lush, well-paying jobs, from New York to Great Britain. They believe they must be able to compete with Euro-based drug companies on a level playing field, particularly in respect to taxes – or they cannot serve their stockholders well.
If Pfizer moves Europe – and is successful – there will be a huge exit of American companies following them to locations abroad. These companies are truly world-wide companies, and can operate anywhere.
In short, in spite of what the Obama guys think, the world does not operate in the way they think it does. Companies will not tolerate being taxed higher here than there. We cannot overcharge our dynamic companies, our high-tech companies, our best and brightest, higher income taxes, nor higher personal taxes!!
Pfizer has called the bluff of this administration – and of the national Democratic party. In effect the company has told the country and its leadership: Keep us competitive or we will move to other shores. Give us an environment in which we can thrive.
This president needs to correct the course of our ship of state – and do it soon. If he does not, then we need to throw him and his party out of power.