Cut corporate taxes and subsidies

In response to Mr. Boske’s letter on April 6, no the public sector didn’t invent mortgage-backed securities or move jobs overseas. Washington relaxed limits on the power of financial industries during the Clinton administration. The public sector regulators merely saw the mortgage disaster coming for years and didn’t say boo.

As to jobs moving overseas, we have the highest business tax rates of any major industrialized country. The high taxes can be avoided legally by leaving a company’s foreign profits overseas and investing them there. Why would any intelligent person bring billions of dollars home only to pay twice or more in taxes? Foreign income is reinvested in foreign jobs. More corporate offices are moved offshore so more income is taxed at foreign rates.

The pain of austerity is predominantly now being felt by the private sector. It’s not vengeance that we should cut costs in the public sector to prevent a meltdown. The public sector employs millions of fine, hardworking people. But it is the private sector that drives a healthy economy.

We need to rebalance. We need to cut corporate tax rates and, to compensate, cut wasteful subsidies as well. We need to face up to the hard talk we owe our public that they must pay more for Medicare and receive it later, because hidden benefits have crept into the system, which will bankrupt us.

There are many, many more bits of hard news we need to hear, because we have taken out more than we have put into our country for years.

Richard Cichanski

Palatine