Manzullo Proposes New Free-Market Strategies to Strengthen America's Struggling Economy
Washington,
Nov 18 -
Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) today proposed several new strategies Congress can pursue to ease America’s credit crunch, strengthen our economy and create jobs without sticking taxpayers with the bill. Manzullo offered his suggestions during a Financial Services Committee hearing called to discuss the state of the U.S. economy.
Manzullo, who opposed the $700 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street in favor of several proven free-market alternatives, said one strategy -- accelerating the domestic manufacturing tax deduction -- would give our companies a cash infusion they could use to sustain and create new jobs in America.
The American Jobs Creation and Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 (HR 5101), which Manzullo authored with Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) earlier this year, would speed up the domestic manufacturing tax deduction to give manufacturers a larger tax break on the goods they produce in the United States. The tax deduction – which Manzullo helped create in 2004 – currently provides a 6 percent tax rate reduction for manufacturers on the goods and services they produce in the United States. The tax rate reduction is scheduled to increase to 9 percent by 2010, but the bill would accelerate the phase-in to 9 percent retroactively to Jan. 1, 2008.
“This legislation gives our manufacturers an extra 3 percent cut in their tax rate immediately that they can use to sustain and create jobs in America,” Manzullo said. “It also provides a greater incentive for our manufacturers to keep jobs in the United States and actually bring some jobs back from overseas because they would pay a 9 percent tax premium on any work they send offshore.”
Manzullo supports several other free-market strategies to strengthen our economy, including:
- Allowing companies to repatriate their overseas profits back to the United States tax free for one year if the money is used to pay off distressed debt or support business expansion or job creation.
- Suspending the capital gains and recapture taxes for two years to encourage Americans to invest in America and encourage corporations to sell unwanted assets and acquire the capital they need to sustain and create jobs.
- Allowing companies to carry-back losses an additional two years, generating a tax refund and immediate capital.
- Directing the Securities and Exchange Commission to suspend the mark-to-market regulatory rules until the agency can issue new guidelines that will allow firms to mark these assets to their true economic value.
- Reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 to 15 percent.
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