by Andrew Zajac
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has emerged as a leading surrogate for presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain, peddling among other wares, a disingenuous argument for corporate tax breaks.
Using Fiorina, who has a bit of the business exec-as-celebrity in her, to flog tax cuts reflects the McCain campaign's desire to continue performing penance before a Republican base which still regards the Arizona senator as squishy on taxes.
Here was Fiorina last Sunday on ABC-TV's This Week with George Stephanopolous:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) As you point out, you come out of the private sector, Hewlett-Packard. Democrats are signaling they could - they're going to use your background and other supporters of John McCain as an issue in this campaign. One issue they cite especially is the issue of offshoring of US jobs. And Senator Obama, as you may know, has said he wants to take away the tax break for companies that keep their profits overseas. Why should there be a tax break for companies that keep their profits overseas?
CARLY FIORINA (MCCAIN CAMPAIGN SURROGATE)
Well, I think the issue is that United States today has the second highest tax rate in the world, second only to Japan. And that encourages people to put jobs and factories overseas. If you look at the example of Ireland. Ireland used to be the slowest-growing economy in Western Europe. It's now one of the fastest. How did they do that? They focused on their education system and they reduced their tax rate on businesses dramatically. And that encouraged businesses. Hewlett-Packard did this. It encouraged businesses to put factories there and to put jobs there. We have to address the tax rate on businesses. Whether it's small businesses or large businesses.
What Fiorino omits is the effective tax rate on corporations. It's substantially lower than the 39-40 percent statutory rate that Fiorina is referring to.
With deductions for R&D and many other ....larger corporations especially are adept at whittling down their tax bills, not infrequently into the 20-30 percent range which would put them in the upper middle of corporate taxpayers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 30-nation ranking.
(Enron famously paid no federal taxes.)
Fiorina might score more points if she made the argument for lower statutory rates for small and medium-sized businesses.
"The system works pretty well for the big guys...They have 30 tax lawyers on staff. It's the smaller businesses who have trouble" because they don't know the perfectly legal angles to play or are terrified of getting audited, says Dean Zerbe, formerly tax maven for Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley.
Zerbe, who now is managing director of alliantgroup LP and spends his time schooling small and mid-cap firms on the ins and outs of federal taxation, thinks McCain has some good ideas to simplify the tax code.
But that's not coming through in Fiorina's heavy-handed insistence on tax cuts.
There's some speculation that Fiorina is angling for a lofty perch in a McCain presidential administration.
But she comes with some baggage, including a not altogether successful tenure at H-P, fiorina post.odt, rewarded nonetheless by a large golden parachute. fiorina suit.odt
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Comments
Since Fiorina is identified in the article as "McCain Campaign Surrogate, shouldn't "George Stephanopoulos of ABC News" also be identified as an ex-Dukakis/Dem party operative who was Bill Clinton's Press Secretary?
Posted by: Bruce | May 18, 2008 9:06 AM
More misleading statements and outright lies.
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/category/taxes/
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/budgetchartbook/fed-rev-spend-2008-boc-T2-Corporate-Income-Tax-Receipts.html
The fact is Corporations pay less of the taxes in this country than they ever have.
I am sick of these Republicans preying on the stupidity of the American people. How anyone can allow them any deference at this point is beyond my comprehension.
Posted by: Deward Bowles | May 18, 2008 9:25 AM
RNC Bruce,
Jorge never was Clinton's press secretary.
Posted by: Doug "Hussein" Zook | May 18, 2008 9:37 AM
This is the same idiotic HP CEO who had the idea for HP's disastrous merger with Compaq.
It was highlighted in a study of mergers and acquisitions that showed most mergers are undertaken for the gross financial benefit of the CEO involved - with little or no benefit for the common employee or consumer.
That's just who John McCain needs touting his asinine economic principles.
Posted by: EK | May 18, 2008 9:57 AM
Who cares. Carly is just getting some cheap press. That or she's nuts. McCain is four more years of Bush!!!
McBush Family Values
Posted by: Anton Chigurh | May 18, 2008 10:14 AM
Lets not upset the task masters. GOP thinking is based upon them doing well so we pee-ons can get the crumbs from them.
Posted by: bill "Hussein" r. | May 18, 2008 10:17 AM
I am an owner of a small IT business and have not recommended or purchased an HP product for over 5 years because of HP's practice of moving jobs overseas. I will say it is hard to find companies who do not offshore jobs but it is possible. Folks like Carly are just after the quick buck (my opinion) and the rest of us be damned! Listen to Lou Dobbs and get the real facts.
Posted by: LB | May 18, 2008 10:56 AM
Having worked at HP under Ms. Fiorina, I can assure you she is out for another 15 minutes of fame, and NOT for the general good of the people. She and Mr. Capellas (Compaq) both walked away with 10-figure golden parachutes, while those of us still there haven't had raises in 3 years, face quarterly layoffs, reduced benefits, and longer work hours. She only created a slave shop, not a better HP for you and me. Do we want this for the country??? I think not.
Posted by: VL | May 18, 2008 12:18 PM
Ms. Fiorina took Hewlett Packard into the toilet with her inestimable vision. Why McCain would hire this woman is beyond me. She is WAY over her head. She's also the woman that hired private investigators to investigate "leaks to the press" by her own board members. Perfect. Idiocy.
Posted by: clyde | May 18, 2008 12:28 PM
i have an h/p fax machine and it sucks
carly can you get me a refund?
Posted by: bob | May 18, 2008 1:00 PM
Fiorina? She would have fit in well with the Enron crowd. Either that or as a "beard" for J. Edgar Hoover.
Posted by: Aaron | May 18, 2008 1:36 PM
The only thing Fiorina knows about business is that she can't run one (unless into the ground counts).
Posted by: mike | May 18, 2008 2:32 PM
I see the Democratic attack and destroy team is out in force in the blogs. You know all this is organized, I hope. Move-On.org orders and its troops respond...and use the same terminology. Most of these people wouldn't have known of Carly Fiorina if she'd have bitten them...which is probably not a bad idea.
Posted by: Janko | May 18, 2008 3:34 PM
I see the Democratic attack and destroy team is out in force in the blogs. You know all this is organized, I hope. Move-On.org orders and its troops respond...and use the same terminology. Most of these people wouldn't have known of Carly Fiorina if she'd have bitten them...which is probably not a bad idea.
Posted by: Janko | May 18, 2008 3:34 PM
Recently Frank Rich of the New York Times try to make a comparison between Obama's Reverend Wright situation and John Hagee backing McCain. this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Don't believe me? Check out this article Another Comparison Between John Hagee and Jeremiah Wright.
Posted by: matt | May 18, 2008 4:50 PM
Carly must be a closet Clinton supporter. Anyone who follows HP knows she was the worst CEO they ever had, so why would get on the McCain bandwagon unless she is trying to hurt his chances.
Posted by: marc | May 18, 2008 7:12 PM
I don't understand why so many of you are repeating the incorrect opinion of Fiorina's tenure as CEO of HP. She proposed the merger with Compaq so HP would become the leader in personal computing. It was controversial at the time, but it turned out to be a great success. HP now continues to widen its lead in personal computing over Dell. Even her detractors on the board of HP have reversed their opinions of Fiorina's tenure. The stock price has doubled and their the leading tech company in the world. It's all due to Fiorina's transformative vision for the company. Hurd is just riding her wave of success.
It's one thing to dislike Fiorina's politics, but the reason why many of you know the "anti-Fiorina" argument is because three years ago she left HP at a time when many thought her strategy wasn't going to work. But after three years now, those arguments have turned out not to be true and Fiorina has turned out to be unquestionably right.
Any notion to the contrary is just rehashed arguments from 2005 that just aren't true.
Posted by: Really? | May 28, 2008 9:21 PM