July 18, 2014
Jack Lew – Secretary
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20220

RE: The other shoe, arriving less gracefully than the first.

Mr. Secretary,

“Fairness”, it being the watchword of mush brained modern American Liberals, carries a large weight whenever taxes are mentioned.

By the by, no one yet has been able to give a simple one declarative sentence of “fairness” yet. Defining its opposite, “unfairness”, is no substitute for it.

[There may be a Guinness Book definition when it comes to “unfairness” in taxes. In 1936 Poppa Joe Kennedy created a trust for the benefit of his son, Teddy. Even then he knew that, as the paradigmatic template for mAL layabouts, he would never be able to provide for himself without public assistance and family help. It is listed as the principal asset of his estate. Does anyone know what is in it? It’s been 78 years. Has it ever paid taxes? “The world wonders”]

Alas, the dictum “I won’t tax thee; you don’t tax me. Let’s tax that fellow behind the tree” still applies.

A lot of South Florida is financed by bed taxes. Whatever your tab for a night on the beach is it is always increased by more than 15%. The tax collectors know that if you live in Wynona, MN or Darrmiscotta, ME you have no recourse.

The “fellow behind the tree”, the unknowing traveler, the catcher on the javelin team, is, oft-times to people who make public policy based on feelings and not ideas, a faceless corporation. A big successful faceless corporation becomes like a 3 legged fawn to the big bad wolf.

Robespierre had nothing on the venomously partisan cheerleaders for “fairness” on taxes. They learned well from Goebbels.

Earth to Jack

Corporations don’t pay taxes. Never have; never will.

Taxes are business expenses. As such, they become part of its cost basis. When figuring the price that it will charge for its goods and/or services taxes are figured in just like the rent, salaries, cost of raw material, benefits, interest, and regulatory penalties and fees. Thus, the taxes are paid by the end user. Still following me?
That some of these end users, these customers, might be inner city single moms, usually women of color, with children in need of a good Ritalin program, kids who live too far from “Midnight Basketball” and its socializing effects, particularly on potentially feral Black urban youth, people who are constantly being exploited by the low prices of Walmart, is of no import to people who are incapable of understanding that, indeed, ideas have consequences.

I’ll bet that your Mom used to tell her friends how smart you were when you were growing up. Insha’Allah she is still here to make the same claim. I’ll try to keep this to myself but I’ll take the over on you not being able to find your ass using both hand without a GPS and a Life Coach in 10 minutes in a phone booth.

The United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the known universe and probably out where the regular Pioneer space probes don’t run.

$2,000,000,000,000
I hope that’s enough zeroes.
Two trillion dollars.
That’s what sitting overseas just outside the tax man’s grasp.

We are talking about some serious Benjamins. If you want to get some of it back here don’t tell the big, faceless companies that you will punish them. How about a big dividend to shareholders without tax consequences to the companies? How about a huge ITC for investing repatriated dollars?

Questioning someone’s “economic patriotism” is not the way to make the dog hunt. The greatest beneficiary of unleashed economic self-interest will be the country.

Annuit Coeptis








Kevin Smith