Private Sector Growth Suffocated by High Taxes

Floor Speech

Ms. FOXX. I rise today to highlight an example of how private sector businesses grow and contribute to our society when they're not suffocated by unnecessarily high taxes, and I rise to dispel a myth that our colleagues continue to perpetuate about energy taxes.

On April 24, The Wall Street Journal ran an article calling Apple Incorporated ``the most valuable company'' in the world. Am I happy about that? Am I happy about Apple's success? You bet I am, and so are most people in the United States. Later that week, on April 28, The New York Times wrote a similar article that reported on Apple's creative but legal tax strategy that saves them billions in tax payments each year. The Times article reported ``the company paid cash taxes of $3.3 billion around the world on its reported profits of $34.2 billion last year, a tax rate of 9.8 percent.'' Comparatively, Wal-Mart paid a tax rate of 24 percent.

When Apple was asked for comments on their exceptionally low tax rate, they responded:

By focusing on innovation, we've created entirely new products and industries, and more than 500,000 jobs for U.S. workers--from the people who create components for our products to the people who deliver them to our customers.

They also mentioned:

In the first half of fiscal year 2012, our U.S. operations have generated almost $5 billion in Federal and State income taxes.

Mr. Speaker, Apple's experiences are instructive to us. First, the Federal Tax Code is too complicated. It allows only the largest companies who can afford to hire Tax Code interpreters to benefit from lower taxes. We should simplify the Tax Code by closing the loopholes and lower rates across the board to boost American competitiveness for all companies large and small.

Both history and Apple's experience underscore how increasing taxes without accompanying comprehensive reform has never and will never represent a sustainable, long-term strategy to any budgetary problems. On the contrary, cutting taxes does create economic growth, which fuels Federal revenue windfalls for reducing the deficit. These lessons should be applied to the entire Tax Code. Instead of increasing taxes on American energy producers, we should focus on simplifying the Federal code to encourage the development of domestic energy resources which, in turn, bolsters employment opportunities here at home.

Again, am I pleased about Apple's success? Absolutely. But we never hear from our Democrat friends about the low tax rates paid by companies like Apple. However, they attack domestic energy producers and ignore the simple truth that it is the American people who actually own these companies and benefit from the respective profits that they make. According to the American Petroleum Institute, mutual funds and other firms hold almost 30 percent of oil stocks; pension funds hold 27 percent; individual investors hold 23 percent; 14 percent is held in individual retirement accounts; other institutional investments hold 5 percent; and corporate management holds just 1.5 percent.

Despite what liberal Democrats would have you believe, increasing domestic energy production not only helps lower prices and produce jobs; it also helps boost stocks, mutual funds, IRAs, and pension funds owned by millions of Americans.

Democrats constantly talk about subsidies to oil and energy companies. Our energy companies don't receive any subsidies. That is a myth that they perpetuate. Solyndra got a subsidy--lots of these new energy types get subsidies--but not the traditional energy companies. It's time that we as government officials get out of the way. Instead of increasing the bureaucracy and red tape, we need to focus on creating an environment for American private sector businesses to better compete in the global marketplace and give back to local communities in the form of jobs rather than sending more money to the Federal Government.

Source