American Thinker (warning-RW): scaled tariffs, no green subsidies or corporate income tax.

[pampango]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/program_for_economic_recovery.html

1. Tariffs to Balance Trade

The obvious solution is to place tariffs upon the countries that manipulate our trade balance. Liberal economist Prof. Paul Krugman has recommended a 25% tariff on China in his NY Times column, and conservative talk show host Michael Savage has recommended a 20% tariff on China in his new book Trickle Up Poverty.

Such across-the-board tariffs would work, but not as well as our invention called the "scaled tariff," whose rate goes up as our trade deficit with a trade-manipulating country goes up, down when the trade deficit goes down, and disappears when our trade deficit disappears. Countries with an overall trade deficit are permitted under WTO rules to impose barriers to imports from their trading partners with whom they are experiencing chronic trade deficits. The scaled tariff would reduce American demand for imports from the trade surplus country which that country could avoid by removing its barriers to our exports.

2. End Subsidies to Alternate Energy

We also have to end our subsidies for alternative sources of energy. ... We have to remove the barriers to drilling for oil on public land.

3. Abolish the Corporate Income Tax

One way to deal with this problem is to integrate the corporate and personal income taxes, treating corporations like partnerships as we currently permit small corporations to do. Another solution would be to replace the corporate income tax with a value-added tax or sales tax. Under WTO rules, value-added taxes and sales taxes can be rebated to exporters, thus subsidizing exports, whereas corporate income taxes cannot be rebated. Under existing rules, our manufacturers are at a disadvantage in international competition.
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Much of this is the typical repub "cut taxes for the rich" and "drill, baby, drill", but the tariff suggestion is interesting.

[hobbit709]

1. That should be American NON-Thinker.

[FreakinDJ]

2. Their 100% right about the Tariffs to Balance Trade

America's stalled economic recovery is a direct result of the Trade Imbalance.

So unless you always wanted to "Flip Burgers at McDonalds when you grow up".....

[Tippy]

6. K&R...The worse part of this is many are going after that very expensive

Degree and only a few will be able to pay off their student loans...."flippin burgers"

[FreakinDJ]

9. How they can claim to negotiate these Trade Deals in America's best interest

is mind boggling to me

They agreed to a 2% tariff vs: China's 20 -40% tariff on American goods entering China. Alone that may not seem so menacing by itself but when you take into consideration China only has a VAT Tax (which American Consumers ultimately pay) and Tariffs, it is very economically one sided. In the end we the American consumer fund and facilitate an extremely oppressive and totalitarian regime that simply executes it citizenry by the 100s any time they object to the Government

All that and we our destroying our own economy / standard of living / and children's future at the same time

[Tippy]

12. Trade deals are brokered to Corporate interest's not to we the people

[Anakin Skywalker]

3. Corporate Stinker @$$holes!

[hansberrym]

4. 1 out of 3 ain't bad?

The move to drop the corporate income tax is crazy talk. Double taxation is the price a corporation pays for being a legal entity(insulating the owners from personal liability). It seems very fair that corporations pay income taxes while shareholders also pay taxes on their cut of the profits. Instead there ought to be a limit on the deductibility of high salaries. In other words corporate salaries above a certain level (i.e. $1,000,000) ought not come off the bottom line of the firm as such high salaries are a way to avoid double taxation.


While on the topic of taxation, raising the capital gains rate should be looked at. Why not raise that tax rate back to 20% but not tax the first $5,000 or $10,000 of gains in order to soften the effect for most taxpayers while encouraging saving and investment.


(on edit: the "1" I agreed with in principle is tarrifs)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Since corps are now people they should be subjected to the personal income tax.

They can deduct their mortgage, their kids and charity. :)

[KharmaTrain]

7. Tarrifs Are Destructive...

Yep...all we need when our economy is outsourced is a trade war. Sure worked well for Hoover.

A proper solution is to tax American corporations and multi-nationals that outsource their labor the difference between the country the good is imported and our minimum wage...make it less worth their while to go elsewhere. No way our corporate-dominated political system would ever go for this and our unions lack the solidarity to really fight the outsourcing either.

[FreakinDJ]

8. Very NICE Bullshit RATpubliCON Logic my friend

Try reading China's Tax code and return with formative answer. Reiterating RATpubliCON talking points hasn't worked very well for the economy nor any hopes of recovery.

Sorry if I seem harsh but the lack of information on the subject matter or at least the lack of information the general public is made aware of on this subject is staggering

[KharmaTrain]

10. So Taffifs Are Good?

That, my friend, was the right wing answer in 1930. That's my reference. We have no control over the Chinese tax codes and there are many countries that not only lock out our goods (Japan) with high tarrifs but also have the government subsidize these businesses. However, our tax codes and laws encourage our corporates and multinationals to move jobs off shore and THAT is what our government can and should do something about.

None of what was put in the OP will work and is the same old RW bullshit...and I should have clarified that previously. This issue has no quick fix as our corporate politicians will never institute "fair trade" or any laws that prevent the corporates that pay for their elections and re-elections that favor the American worker over that of the corporates.

While we can't control what other countries do, we sure can equalize things a little by taxing those who exploit the trade imbalances instead of the current sham of giving these corporates tax breaks.

[FreakinDJ]

15. According to Milton Friedman tariffs were NOT the cause of the Great Depression

Yet another RATpubliCON LIE repeated sufficiently until people began to believe it to be true.

"Well Gee Wilikers - Beck and O'Rielly said it on TV so it must be true and Good for Amurika"

As a result of examining more closely the key years between 1929 and 1933, Friedman and Schwartz first concluded that the Great Depression was not the necessary and direct result of the stock-market crash of October 1929, which they attribute to a speculative investment bubble. (The popping of the “bubble” may have been instigated by the Federal Reserve’s raising of the discount rate—the interest rate the Fed charges on loans to commercial banks—in August 1929. The cause of the speculative bubble that led to the crash is a somewhat controversial topic. Whereas Friedman and Schwartz accepted that the bubble was caused by investors, seemingly endorsing—at least partly—the Keynesian “animal spirits” explanation, Austrian economists have argued otherwise.) In fact, they believed that the economy could have recovered rather rapidly if only the Fed—the central bank of the United States —had not engaged in a series of disastrous policies in the aftermath of the crash.

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-great-depression-according-to-milton-friedman/

Please excuse me

[pampango]

11. Not all tariffs are destructive. Progressive countries trade more than the US with as low tariffs

(or lower) but they still have some tariffs. Canada, Australia and all the European countries trade more than we do and have progressive governments (certainly compared to ours) so their people lead better lives.

[KharmaTrain]

13. Also Selective Tariffs...

Not all tarrifs are alike...as I'm sure you know. Some countries like Japan use them to protect their internal consumer markets while others use them to equalize trade balances. The problem isn't imports or tariffs as much as the encouragement of our corporates through tax brreaks to offshore and this is where our imbalance gets out of whack. Make it less worth the corporates while to make a widget in China than the U.S. and that's where future jobs could be found...but tarrifs and trade wars aren't the fix.

Cheers...

[txlibdem]

14. Create false dilemma, add red herring, stir, wait till public will accept the full brunt of any cuts

Mission accomplished! Whoops, forgot to add that one choice is a false equivalence.

There is only one solution: impose equivalent tariffs against all countries that impose barriers to our goods. These tariffs should adjust immediately as the offending nation puts a tariff on us.

The other two are false options but we all know that #2 will be the one they settle on. Ah, it's good to own a bunch of politicians!