Fox Financial Panelist Wishes U.S. Economy Were More Like India's
Reported by Guest Blogger - November 8, 2010 -
By Brian
Fox News’ Cashin’ In show held a discussion Saturday about corporate taxes and outsourcing American jobs offshore. Nearly all the panelists stuck up for those poor, overtaxed businesses that just want liberation from American taxes, regulations and wage requirements and never mind anyone thrown out of work. One regular panelist even argued that we should be more like India where there is “mass prosperity.”
Host Cheryl Casone asked Mark Levine, the lone liberal on the panel, "Do you think that the President, all he can do on this trip (to India), is maybe save American jobs, and not create any more?"
Mark Levine said some outsourcing could be prevented. "There was a bill before Congress right before the elections where every single Republican voted to give tax breaks to companies that moved jobs overseas. …Why we would favor India over Americans, I don't know… It's not the corporate rates, it’s the amount that corporations pay. ExxonMobil made $35 billion last year, and they paid $15 billion in taxes. Guess how much went to the United States? Zero. Goose egg. They pay into other countries, not to us. We need to make sure that corporations pay taxes in America and not to France and other countries."
Tracy Byrnes said, "Mark, you’ve got to pull up Exxon's financial statements. Their effective tax rate; corporate, state, local, municipalities is well over 40%... They pay their fair share. It's the $60 billion in revenue that's earned overseas that never makes it back here because they don't want to pay an effective 40% rate."
Jonathan Hoenig said, “Cheryl, you know, India is a great example… India’s stock market is at an all time high right now. It’s at the equivalent of Dow 14,000. And we’ve always known that the most prosperous countries, the best economies, are those with the freest economies... In the last 10 or 15 years, every step they’ve taken to free their economy has resulted in mass prosperity… India doesn’t have a national minimum wage. The president advocated for a higher national minimum wage. That doesn’t inspire people to create jobs here at home.” (Note: India’s per capita GNI is $1070)
Levine challenged Hoenig’s claim of “mass prosperity” in India. He also said, "The corporations are not paying their taxes. If they would, for example, if you would stop having incentives to take jobs overseas if you start saying that you'd be punished for taking jobs overseas, maybe those companies will follow those same incentives."
Byrnes shrieked, "What? They're not paying their taxes because it's too much money. It's just good business."
When challenged, Hoenig said he supports companies taking jobs overseas. "This country used to be 90% farmers. We outsourced all those jobs, and thank God we did."
"You like outsourcing?" Levine asked.
"Exactly!" Hoenig said.
"Then don’t complain about the unemployment rate!" Levine shot back.
