Obama's Corporate Tax Overhaul

     I got to admit I'm not altogether sure about his proposal. What I don't get, and have never got, is how he on the one hand says he wants to let the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy expire and indeed even wants a new Buffett Rule tax where no one under a certain income level can ever pay less than a 30% income tax rate, and yet he claims that we need to lower corporate taxes.

    On the one hand it is claimed that somehow the current corporate tax rate is too high-we always hear about how it's "the second highest in the world" and yet under questioning yesterday, Geithner in speaking about Obama's plans before a hostile GOP Congress pointed out that the effective tax rate is actually very low. OK, but then how is it unfair at least to corporations?

    The U.S. already has the second lowest effective corporate tax rate in the world, and is raising historically low amounts of revenue from the corporate income tax. In fact, corporate tax revenue is at a 40 year low, according to the Congressional Budget Office, even though corporate profits have rebounded to their pre-recession heights. And the U.S. effective corporate tax rate is low compared to other developed economies, while U.S. corporations are taxed less than their foreign rivals

    "However, despite these numbers, the plan does not aim for an increase in revenue, above that which would allow for the extension of some credits to be paid for. “Everyone agrees on the basic principle of lowering rates in exchange for eliminating loopholes,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “However, I think it is important that the target be some increase in tax revenue.” Otherwise, the burden of deficit reduction will fall upon middle-class and low-income Americans and the services upon which they depend"

   http://thinkprogress.org/page/2/

   This is supposed to raise net revenues-some what at least. But if it's not much and as the corporate sector far from being overtaxed contributes less to GDP than ever what is the burning necessity behind this? I'd like to believe in this but I don't get it.

    Yet another impeccable liberal, Dean Baker, as we saw above everyone agrees with the principle of lowering rates in exchange for eliminating  loopholes. I still am missing the virtue of this even if everyone agrees on it. I'm not saying there is no virtue just that I don't understand it yet, assuming it is real.