Max Baucus: “I thank the Senator very much. I also thank my friend from Maine for her indulgence. Believe me, I will be as short as I…”

“I thank the Senator very much. I also thank my friend from Maine for her indulgence. Believe me, I will be as short as I possibly can. I deeply appreciate their indulgence. Tax Code Reform I am here to basically say I believe we must very aggressively reform our Tax Code. It has not been updated since 1986. Since that date, it has built up barnacles, loopholes, deductions, credits. There have been 15,000 changes to the Tax Code since 1986, and there have been additions. There have not been subtractions. Our code is out of date. Other countries have kept their tax codes up to date. They have ensured that their companies are more competitive with changes in their tax codes. We have not done so. Our American companies are losing out. They are losing out to other companies worldwide because our code has not kept up to date. In fact, there is a recent survey by Harvard Business School. Harvard Business School surveyed over 10,000 of its graduates over a short period of time. The conclusion of that survey, from those who responded, is America is starting to lose its competitiveness. We are losing out. Why? Many reasons. But the one that bubbles up the most, the one that was most telling, is our Tax Code. Two reasons: One, they said, is the high rates. Our Tax Code's top rate, 35 percent for corporations, is much higher than is the rate for other countries worldwide. Other countries have lowered their top corporate rate. We have not lowered ours.…”