Microsoft to Obama: Drop the Tax Hikes Or Else

California Conservative.org, 6/4/09 

According to this article, Microsoft sent a shot across President Obamas bow: 

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made headlines when he publicly attacked President Barack Obamas plan to cut tax breaks on U.S. companies foreign profits, a plan which is currently awaiting Congressional approval.

Mr. Ballmer suggests that if the tax succeeds, Microsoft may begin a significant move out of the U.S., taking with it tax revenue and jobs. He states, It makes U.S. jobs more expensive. We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.

President Obamas economic plans are a disaster. First, he spent hundreds of billions of dollars on ARRA, then followed that up with his omnibus spending bill to fund his supersized government for the rest of this fiscal year. These bills, along with the money he’s spending bailing out the UAW, are producing deficits that are well beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. President Obamas, and congressional Democrats, irresponsible spending is forcing major tax increases to pay for his spending.

Microsofts reply is essentially a shot across the Obama administrations bow. Here’s the message they’re sending him: Get things under control or you’ll be responsible for forcing the most prosperous high tech company to relocate.

Mr. Ballmer, perhaps the most outspoken critic, did acknowledge that the Obama proposal preserved research and experimentation cost tax breaks. He warned, though, that the cuts to foreign exemptions would raise the cost of Microsofts 56,552 U.S. employees. He says this could necessitate moving them overseas. Microsoft was previously embroiled in a controversy over whether it should lay off foreign workers before U.S. ones.

The tax fairness people can whine all they want. This is a matter of evil capitalists being able to change locations to keep their companies profitable. President Obama can attempt to raise Microsofts taxes if they’d like but that wont raise revenues if Microsoft relocates to a Pacific Rim country.

The only real, long lasting solution to President Obamas obscene deficits is cutting the spending that President Obama raised with ARRA and with his omnibus bill. The other thing that’s needed is what ARRA was theoretically supposed to provide: job creation. That’s best accomplished by cutting taxes, not raising government spending.

Had President Obama done that in the first place, and if President Obama hadn’t twice bailed out the UAW, wed be on a pathway to recovery. He and Tim Geithner made some ill-advised decisions. Now well spend the next generation paying for their ill-advised decisions.