Cut Corporate Taxes

A lot of Americans believe that our industries need to  be protected against unfair foreign competition.  It's not fair, they claim, that low Chinese labor costs, for example, shut down American plants.  But labor costs aren't the only problem we've got as Fred Thompson appears to understand.

Here he is on CNBC's Kudlow & Company yesterday:

Mr. THOMPSON: We have, you know—if you include state taxes—the highest corporate tax rate in the world. That makes us less competitive. All those things have to be looked at. And all those—especially as far as the corporate tax rate is concerned, need to be clearly reduced, I think.

KUDLOW: Yeah, it's an interesting point. There's been a bunch of news articles. Europe, believe it or not--I mean, old Europe, believe it or not is engaging in low tax-cutting competition. And...

Mr. THOMPSON: It's ironic that when western Europe starts going lower than you, you need to be concerned about it.

Democrats in particular are pretty convinced that limiting foreign trade is the way to go.  They beat the drum of low Chinese currency exchange rates and even lower Chinese wages.  Of course, they all know that our corporate taxes are an even bigger cause of the problem, but they just can't give up that revenue.

Why else be in Congress if you can't dish out other people's money?