The Voice in Harper’s Head
The Canadian Press summary of the Prime Minister’s comments raised my eyebrows, but it was not a direct quote. So, I checked the Parliament of Canada website:
Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC): There is not a single business organization, not a single credible voice in this country, that supports the tax hikes proposed by the Liberal Party.
It hardly seems noteworthy that business organizations favour corporate tax cuts. If they are the only voice that Harper considers credible, then one can only assume that the federal corporate tax rate is ultimately headed to zero under his government.
Zero would be the goal. Once on the ever shifting Laffer curve that is the logical conclusion. The funny thing is that the more they push for zero CITs the more tempting and realistic it becomes to nationalize the key sectors that all businesses need and then use those monopolies to extract rents through monopoly pricing.
At some point “liberal” economists are going to have to make some very different choices.
It looks like the UK wants to follow Ireland in the corporate tax cut game (see ‘UK About to Implement Massive Tax Break for Banks; Is the US Far Behind?’ at the link below). By becoming a tax haven Ireland did manage to attract quite a few head offices. It seems the UK government wants to assure its dominance in the financial industry. The end game, as Erin points out, is zero.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/02/uk-about-to-implement-massive-tax-break-for-banks-is-the-us-far-behind.html