Mike Enzi: “I think our tax system has encouraged companies to get bigger and to enfold more kinds of operations into their current…”

“I think our tax system has encouraged companies to get bigger and to enfold more kinds of operations into their current operations, even if they were not compatible with the current operation, just so they could do as you have expressed, avoid some of the double taxation there would be on dividends and also drive up the price of the stock by making these other acquisitions. Growth, sometimes, of another business will drive up the price of the stock because it increases the number of sales for the host corporation. It did not increase the number of sales for the purchased corporation, but by adding that to the new one or by sticking some other units out there, they can drive up the stock prices. We have seen a number of mechanisms for being able to drive up the stock prices. I do expect we will see kind of a reversal in the way companies have been doing that. If we can put some plans in place to better stimulate small businesses, we will see some of those big businesses spinning off some of the businesses that they have had before, taking the cash, paying some dividends and increasing the value of their stock based on the true accounting, the cash that they are able to generate. They will be able to do that because they won't have that double taxation burden some of the investors look for, those opportunities. They don't want to receive the dividends. They want to see the increase in stock value instead.”