A year ago this domestic terrorist was advocating, a la Mitt Romney, that American corporations move offshore because of their so-called tax burden. An odious practice commonly referred to as "inversion". Now this creep wants to stack the tax code in corporations favor to get them to return, because they'll get to keep even more money that would otherwise be wasted on healthcare, infrastructure, social security and the like.
To Cohn and other creeps like him, all of this makes perfect sense for Americans who matter most: corporate shareholders.
Source: CNBC
Harwood: The Penn-Wharton model that was run by this former Bush economist has got a new projection out that shows that there is a chance that this will shrink the economy in the long run because of the deficit drag.
Cohn: We don't agree with that. We believe that we're going to have a very stimulative effect on the economy by lowering the business tax rate, by lowering the corporate rate, and making America competitive with the rest of the world. Look, a year ago, I was on the other side of this equation. I was advising companies how to get out of the burdensome U.S. tax system. We were talking about inversions — we were talking about moving companies out of the United States. The most compelling presentation I could make to a board is, hey, I can turbocharge your earnings without doing anything in your company. I can just relocate your domicile, and you can hold your board meetings, you can do a few things, and you can go from a 35 percent tax rate to a 15 percent tax rate. You can deliver 20 percent of your earnings to the bottom line.
Harwood: Did you feel guilty advocating that as an American?
Cohn: No. I didn't feel guilty because boards have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. That's what they're supposed to do. So, you know what? We're going to make America competitive. We're going to make it compelling for people to build their companies in America.
Harwood: You, I imagine, are the point person in the White House for big CEOs because you come from their world, they know you. What are you hearing from them right now?
Cohn: The most excited group out there are big CEOs, about our tax plan. They all tell me how they excited they are to get a tax plan that makes the United States competitive, makes it so they can grow their business domestically, makes it so they can — actually pay wages here. People have trapped their money offshore. So, you can't pay U.S. workers. You can pay non-U.S. workers, 'cause you've got the money offshore.
