The Texas Miracle: It's Time Washington Should Emulate the Lone Star State's Success

Statement

With the recent news of Burger King's decision to move its operations to Canada in order to escape the punitive and inefficient U.S. tax code, national Democrats have wasted no time vilifying the company, with some even proposing new legislation to punish and prohibit U.S. companies from leaving the country to avoid the outrageously high U.S. corporate tax rate. This illustrates precisely what is wrong with Washington.

Yesterday, we learned that the Obama led U.S. Treasury Department has taken action to address U.S. based multinational restructures to accomplish inversion. Specifically, these new U.S. Treasury rules will limit an American company's ability to relocate its operation abroad to reduce taxes should it choose to do so. To top it off, the Obama administration has imposed these new regulations without Congressional approval.

In place of added restrictions, the national conversation should be driven by discussions on meaningful tax and regulatory reforms that encourage U.S. businesses to stay in America, and moreover, encourage foreign businesses to relocate to the United States. And while fruitful discussions should be conducted on reforms that produce economic freedom, there is one laboratory of innovation and economic power that has proven time and time again to be a role model for the nation.

For the tenth straight year, Chief Executive Magazine has ranked Texas the "Best State for Business." Texas boasts a low cost of living, zero personal income tax, a fair and predictable legal system, and an efficient and educated workforce. These are all policies that one would be hard pressed to find coming out of Washington, D.C.

Instead, Washington now ranks near the very top as one of the most hostile business environments in the Western world according to the U.S. Tax Foundation's global benchmark, called the International Tax Competitiveness Index. From the thousands of pages of new regulations found in Obamacare, to the ever expanding bureaucratic nightmare of federal regulatory agencies, to the nearly 40% US corporate tax rate--yes, you read that correctly, nearly 40%, Washington has enacted policies that do nothing but encourage U.S. employers to pack up and leave.

It's time for Washington and the President to get serious about America truly being the seat of free enterprise, and enact reforms that will spur innovation and unleash the free market to do what it does best, create jobs.

And there is no better model to emulate than that of the Lone Star State.

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