FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 30, 2013
TJ Helmstetter
Communications Director
Email: thelmstetter@americansfortaxfairness.org
Obama’s Corporate Tax Plan Called a Disappointment by Americans for Tax Fairness
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following statement about President Obama’s corporate tax reform proposal was released on Tuesday by Frank Clemente, campaign manager of Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), a coalition of more than 325 national and state organizations:
“While it’s a good sign that President Obama believes that the focus of the budget debate in Washington should be on jobs and not more failed austerity spending cuts, his corporate tax plan is a real disappointment. It does not require the corporate sector to contribute a dime in additional tax revenue, and the numbers don’t add up.
“The proposal is similar to the revenue-neutral corporate tax plan he proposed in February 2012. The first plan was disappointing and the new one is even more so given the harsh cuts to government services that have occurred since then.
“Spending cuts – many to critical government services – have amounted to nearly $2 trillion over the last two years to reduce the deficit. But corporations have made no contribution towards that goal. The proposal the President introduced today enshrines that principle for the foreseeable future. That is not fair nor is it sensible.
“The first goal of tax reform should not be to lower corporate tax rates. Instead, it should be to raise revenues in order to help create jobs, as the President proposes, to meet the pressing needs of American families, and to make new investments to grow the economy and to rebuild our infrastructure.
“It is hard to see how those goals can be achieved with the President’s plan, which would lower the overall corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, while explicitly preserving tax breaks for manufacturers and other tax expenditures. Lowering the rate is extremely costly, and the President’s plan doesn’t address how he will generate such a large sum from the corporate sector. We applaud his call to close tax loopholes that encourage companies to locate overseas and shift profits abroad, but it is time to get specific and show how the numbers will add up.
“And most important, it is time to do what the American people say they want in poll after poll – to require corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, as working families already do.”
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