This Just In! Americans Very Concerned About Corporate Tax Rate...

...If you believe National Review writer, and CNBC pundit, Larry Kudlow that is. In a post entitled 'Pro-Business McCain vs. Populist Hill-Bama' (eek, populism monster will eat our babies!1!), Kudlow says proudly that-

Senator John McCain essentially took the no-new-taxes pledge on the Stephanopoulos show Sunday morning. He also emphasized his corporate-tax-cut plan, which would drop the rate from 35 to 25 percent, and reiterated his pledge to keep the Bush tax rates in place.

No new taxes? I seem to remember Bush's father making that promise once... until economic realities forced him to trade ideology for practicality (his son has shown he is much better at ignoring reality to appease his base). I wonder which road McCain would take there. After all, he is a maverick.

As for the corporate tax rate, Kudlow really lays it on thick to make that seem oppressive. With most companies hitting record profits in the past several years-- thanks in part to massive layoffs and outsourcing (more on that in a bit)-- it hardly seems like they need a break here. Tax breaks should only be reserved to reward companies who do the right thing (fostering job growth, cutting pollution and waste, etc), not as free-cash giveaways.

As for the ridiculous pandering that every GOP candidate must pay homage to the Bush tax cuts-- and promise to continue this unprecedented practice during wartime-- I'll let Slate's Daniel Gross take that one. In an article examining the President's tax lies in his recent State of the Union, Gross writes-

He told Congress that making the tax cuts, due to expire in 2010, permanent today would go a long way toward soothing frayed economic nerves. "With all the other pressures on their finances, American families should not have to worry about the federal government taking a bigger bite out of their paychecks. There is only one way to eliminate this uncertainty: Make the tax relief permanent." This is, of course, a fantasy confined to a dwindling number of office suites in the White House, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and certain time slots on CNBC. On the long and growing list of factors weighing on the economy—stagnant job growth, the housing mess, problems with bond insurers, the self-inflicted wounds of the financial sector, a debased currency—the prospect that tax rates are going to revert to 1990s levels in three years is pretty far down.

Ding ding ding! I demand that every Democrat be equally concise in their discussion of this.

Kudlow continues-

Incidentally, an interesting story in USA Today by Dan Nowicki of the Arizona Republic says that Sen. McCain has often talked about getting top U.S. business leaders into his administration. Several times on the campaign trail, McCain has mentioned Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Cisco’s John Chambers, and FedEx CEO Fred Smith as possible cabinet members.

Yes, that is what we need to get fair, hard-nosed economic advice in this administration... stack the presidential cabinet full of CEOs. I can't see a problem with that, nope.

Mr. Kudlow then goes on a rant about the populist rhetoric of the vile "Hill-Bama" monster (including Obama's-- gasp-- questioning how successful our free-trade agreements have been!). He assures us that "Sen. McCain will hold them accountable for their primary-season populist rhetoric during the general election." What does that even mean? That the GOP is finally cutting out the 'we're looking out for the little guy' routine and just admitting they're the party of the rich? If so, I am all for it.

He concludes-

There are a lot of reasons why the anti-business message doesn’t work. One important reason is that 138 million Americans work for these corporations. Their livelihoods depend on businesses. 138 million is a big number. Think of it.

Yes, 138 million Americans work for these corporations... and they couldn't give a shit that conservatives think the corporate tax rate is too high. Why? Because-- unlike what Kudlow's wording implies-- they don't pay that rate, only their billionaire bosses do. Considering that most of these 138 million have been working more and longer for a lower standing of living than their parent's generation (and under the constant fear of layoffs, loss of health-care, etc), I'm not sure that the corporate tax rate is their most important concern. That these companies choose to punish their employees-- rather than their own, personal massive profits-- when forced to pay their fair share is the fault of greed, not populism.

Big businesses have behaved immorally in this past decade-- and the economy is now (again) paying the price for their excess-- and people like Kudlow want to reward them for it. "The real supply-side 'bang for the buck' comes at the top-end" of the economy, he insisted in another recent piece. He went on to state that idea of focusing economic relief on "the so-called middle class" was "futile" and "bad politics". This is modern economic conservatism in a nutshell. And if that's the message that the GOP will be running with this year, they are in for a rude awakening.