USA Today finally breaks the national media silence about the one-third of Fred Thompson's life that he spent as a high-paid corporate lobbyist in Washington, D.C. Thompson's campaign, which is being run by his fellow K Street lobbyists, responded by saying only that being a K Street lobbyist "is an honorable endeavor that goes back to the beginnings of this republic."
Huh? Honorable? What are you smoking, Fred?
Not surprisingly, the National Association of Manufacturers has a post on its blog trumpeting Thompson's first major policy declaration: His decision to make enacting new corporate tax breaks the centerpiece of his campaign.
Oy. Because with all that's going on--record deficits, outsourcing, real wages dropping, the middle class becoming extinct, what we should focus on is REDUCING CORPORATE TAXES? Fred actually tells NAM:
"We have, you know-if you include state taxes-the highest corporate tax rate in the world. That makes us less competitive. All those things have to be looked at. And all those-especially as far as the corporate tax rate is concerned, need to be clearly reduced."
Only problem, is that's not strictly true. Conservative think tanks will say it is, but what they neglect to mention corporate tax rates are only paid on corporate income AFTER all tax credits, deductions and other loopholes have been applied. This .pdf from Citizens for Tax Justice shows that 82 of the largest and most profitable US corporations paid NO tax for one or more years during the Bush Administration.
So, Fred, how exactly does reducing nothing make us more competitive?
