Ya - its illegal, and probably immoral...that doesn't seem to matter...

I don't typically just copy blog posts in verbatim, but Tad has an informative one here that you should think about. For those of you that don't visit the Cato blog...

Originally Posted by Tad DeHaven on cato-at-liberty.org

Another Government Employee Bailout

President Obama is proposing giving the states another $50 billion. However, this would amount to another bailout for state and local government employees and their unions. The president claims that more deficit spending is necessary to sustain the nascent economic recovery. But the only thing the money would sustain is the excessive wages and benefits government employees enjoy at the expense of the private sector.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average state and local government employee receives 45 percent more in total compensation per hour worked than the average private-sector employee. Perhaps we should cut generous government wages and benefits rather than putting the federal government further into debt?

Total compensation for state and local workers is more than $1.1 trillion a year. So loosely speaking we could simply cut compensation by less than five percent for state and local governments to save the $50 billion they (say) they are in need of.

Of more fundamental concern is the continued relegation of the states to being administrative outposts of the federal government. The employment of firefighters, teachers, and police officers is an issue for the states to be concerned with. However, so long as the federal government continues to overstep its constitutional bounds, the states will have little incentive to tackle issues like excessive employee compensation. State and local policymakers can avoid the hassle of taking on the government employee unions by cashing Uncle Sam’s checks instead.

As the following chart shows, federal aid to state and local governments has almost doubled in real terms over the past decade:



It’s not a coincidence that the states find themselves in a fiscal bind. The increasing dependency on the federal government has contributed to the states’ dereliction of duty when it comes to keeping their fiscal houses in order. As this essay argues, reviving fiscal federalism is critical to getting governments at all levels in the United States to clean up their fiscal messes.

Death....and Taxes

Here's something as sure as death and taxes...

People will do everything in their power to avoid BOTH!

According to the Cato Institute:

In recent years, most major nations have reduced their
statutory corporate income tax rates. Of the 30 nations in
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, 27 cut their general corporate income tax
rates since 2000, with an average cut of more than 7
percentage points. Among the 50 other nations examined
here, 28 reduced their corporate tax rates, with an average
cut also of about 7 percentage points.

And in a more recent story...

Taiwan Cuts Corporate Taxes
Posted by Chris Edwards

From the subscription magazine Tax Notes today:

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan (parliament), in an attempt to attract foreign investors, on May 28 passed legislation cutting the island’s corporate tax rate from 20 percent to 17 percent, retroactive to January 1…

The lower corporate tax rate will make Taiwan more competitive with its East Asian rivals Singapore, whose rate is also 17 percent, and Hong Kong, whose rate remains slightly lower at 16.5 percent.

The reduced rate ‘will make us even more competitive and will help attract international businesses to set up their headquarters in Taiwan. We believe we’ll see the positive results in the next several years,’ lawmaker Alex Fei of the ruling Kuomintang.

If you were the CEO of an international company that made semiconductor chips, laptops, or other manufactured products, would you locate your next plant in the United States — where the corporate rate is about 40% — or Taiwan where it is less than half of that?

Kinda makes a guy go 'duh', doesn't it.

Also makes a guy wonder what our current administration is thinking in RAISING the effective tax rates in the midst of a debt crisis, sky-high unemployment, and the most significant recession since the Great Depression...How does THAT translate into more jobs, opportunities, and revenue?? Seems the rest of the world is pretty convinced it does not...

You can get a look at other countries' tax rates at: "http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb_62.pdf">