On the recordSeptember 18, 2014
I appreciate the recognition. I appreciate you staying with me into the evening tonight. I wish I could tell you I was bringing you good news, but I am bringing you some bad news. It is bad news that you have already heard. I have the most recent Tax Foundation rankings of international tax competitiveness. We talk so much about jobs and the economy. We talk about how to make a difference in the lives of middle class families. We talk about jobs that are moving overseas. We talk about whether or not we are going to grow this economy. This is the ranking of the most competitive Tax Codes in this country. I want you to think about, Madam Speaker, what those things are that we can do to be more competitive in this country. We could lower everyone's wages. That would make it cheaper to build things in this country. I think that is an awful idea. We could ignore environmental regulations. That would make things easier and cheaper to build in this country. That is an awful idea. One of the things we could do, though, is deal with our tax system, a tax system that, so says the Tax Foundation, is the 32nd worst tax system of the 34 OECD countries--32nd worst in tax competitiveness. Now, they are looking at everything. They are looking at individual taxes. They are looking at corporate taxes. You go way over here on the end, Madam Speaker, you get to the international tax rules rank. That is how well we work with the rest of the world with our tax system.…
