The Democrat Becomes Republican, Part 1

By Zach Foster

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor recently criticized the President for what eh referred to as “quid pro quo” solicitations from Washington to big business.  The President, during a speech, asked big businesses to invest two billion dollars in creating jobs in America, further reducing unemployment.  The President cited his administration’s willingness to cut corporate taxes for companies creating a significant amount of jobs.  Cantor and several other Republican leaders are somehow aghast at this, and are criticizing the President for “quid pro quo.”  This may sound strange in a world where normality is no longer the standard, but isn’t this how it is supposed to be?

Many Republican administrations have happily reduced corporate taxes in order to encourage job creation.  The President is carrying on this tradition, knowing that lower taxes increase revenue in the private sector.  Many Democrats are also unhappy about this, but that is to be expected, since cutting corporate taxes goes against their longstanding tradition of raising taxes.  What the President is proposing for American businesses and job growth is to be commended.  What this encompasses is the sensible maneuver of steering job creation and economic growth closer to the private sector and further away from government funding.

Walter E. Williams, distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University and syndicated columnist, explains how tax cuts on big business benefits the middle class.  “If a tax is levied on a corporation, and if it is to survive, it will have one of three responses, or some combination thereof. One response is to raise the price of its product, so who bears the burden? Another response is to lower dividends; again, who bears the burden? Yet another response is to lay off workers. In each case, it is people, not some legal fiction called a corporation, who bear the burden of the tax.”  What this also means is that when big businesses are taxed less, profits are higher and more disposable, therefore jobs are created, prices don’t rise, and wealth is spread more liberally and plentifully than it would be in Marxism.  The President is actually supporting a traditionally Republican economic stance!

If jobs are being created at home, why shouldn’t these businesses get reduced taxes?  After all, so many corporations that enjoy reduced taxes continue to lay off hardworking Americans simply for the sake of cutting down costs (making a buck) by outsourcing jobs to third world countries where products can be made and the labor is only a miniscule fraction of what it would have cost at home.  This is called corporate greed.  However, the businesses that “invest in America,” as the President referred to them, should get tax breaks for hiring many hardworking Americans whose paychecks will allow them to buy products and stimulate their local economies—a little more prosperity rippling across America.

Next: Bi-partisanship, open dialogues, and Afghanistan