Biden finally managed to do something: he convinced much of the world to sign onto a 15% minimum corporate tax.
The purpose is to allow Democrats to raise taxes on U.S. corporations without fear that they will bolt for friendlier havens.
I'm not sure that will keep companies from leaving, if the tax hike is high enough; and the major challenge to the U.S. economy is not that corporations aren't paying their "fair share," as Biden likes to say (though he himself avoided $500,000 in taxes by filing as an S-corp rather than an individual), but rather that we are killing our own economic potential with red-green statist policies.
Moreover, Congress will have to raise current U.S. taxes on corporate profits abroad from 10.5% to 15% to comply with the new international agreement.
Regardless, this is a diplomatic achievement for the Biden administration, however dubious. Biden (and Treasury secretary Janet Yellen) set a policy and pursued it, bringing the rest of the world along. Some of the work had been done by previous (Democratic) administrations, but he still gets the credit.
So... well done? I like the idea of 15% taxes: it should not just be a minimum, but a maximum. We should set a 15% flat tax and get rid of most of the IRS. We might raise more revenue; we'd certainly have more economic growth. And we'd have a broader tax base: more Americans would take an interest in how tax dollars are spent (or misspent), and politicians would not be able to get away with profligate spending quite as easily as they do, and expect to keep doing.
My wife, who is an economist, points out that it does not matter how many countries signed onto the 15% minimum tax: all you need is one to offer less, and corporations will go there.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
