The United States is at both an economic and cultural crossroads. The economy is still suffering from the “Great Recession” with slow economic growth and 9.1 percent unemployment. The credit rating of the nation has recently been lowered because of the failure of policymakers to appropriately address the spending problem. Our national debt is over $14 trillion and the federal government has been running trillion-dollar deficits, while entitlement programs threaten to consume the entire budget unless reformed. The traditional values and Christian heritage of the nation is also under attack by secular worldviews. Conservatives are fighting a war on a thousand fronts, from restoring the economy and constitutional government to preserving our heritage from a growing secular and relativistic culture. Conservatives who are looking (Continue reading on p. 5 of Sept. edition of LIMITS here)

Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken said Thursday (Sept. 29) that America has seen zero private-sector job growth over the last decade due to the national corporate tax structure.

“The current U.S. corporate tax system basically exports American prosperity and jobs overseas and we need to change that,” Pauken said in an exclusive interview with The Journal. “We have the most onerous corporate tax system in the world and so over the last decade there has been zero private-sector job growth in the country.

“During that time, we lost one third of our U.S. manufacturing base, that’s five and a half million good American jobs that have gone away,” he said. “And it’s not just China and Mexico. Germany, which has a high wage structure has a strong manufacturing sector, is running trade surpluses while we’re running massive trade deficits.”

“China has a 17 percent tax advantage over us; Mexico has a 16 percent tax advantage. All of these nations enjoy an on average an 18 percent tax advantage over us and so we’ve become the dumping ground. And it’s a real incentive for larger companies in particular to move jobs overseas, which is what is happening.”

On average, American businesses and manufacturers pay a 35 percent corporate tax rate, almost twice the rate of most foreign countries.

Using Germany as an example, Pauken argued other countries held an unfair advantage over the U.S. under the current tax structure.

“If a U.S. made Cadillac priced against a comparably priced Mercedes Benz is exported to Germany, it has to pay 35 percent corporate income tax and 7.65 percent employer portion of the payroll tax. Then on top of that, you’re hit with a 19 percent border-adjusted consumption tax,” he said. “Germany manufacturers then hold an advantage because a German vehicle coming into the U.S. does not have to pay our corporate taxes. We have no border-adjusted consumption tax and they get a credit against their consumption tax back home; so it’s a real incentive to locate factories in Germany and not in the U.S.”

According to Pauken, the corporate tax structure should be changed in order to save American jobs and creating a fairer playing field for U.S. businesses.

“The real problem is when you’ve got such an onerous corporate tax system like we do in the U.S., what happens? Companies have to figure out a way to make it work. So you’ve a lot of big companies, for example, that have money parked overseas that could be brought back if we had the right tax system.

“But they are not going to do that if there is a 35 percent tax rate,” he said. “If you change the way we tax business; replace the current system with a revenue neutral eight percent border adjusted business consumption tax, all of a sudden the playing field becomes level.”

Article originally appeared here.

But there’s one voice he should listen to — a man who can take some responsibility for the tremendous job creation numbers in Texas, Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken.

“National unemployment remains stubbornly high, with the latest figures for July showing 9.1 percent unemployment,” Pauken says. “Even Texas — which has done better than any other state in the nation in adding private sector jobs over the past decade — saw its unemployment rate increase to 8.4 percent in July. If present trends continue, our nation will continue to suffer from ‘structural unemployment’ and the hollowing out of our manufacturing base.”

Pauken was in Iowa for the talk in Newton Wednesday evening, where he was on a panel discussion along with Newton Mayor Chaz Allen, Iowa State University economist Mark Edelman, Iowa Business Council member Elliot Smith and Jasper County Treasurer Doug Bishop. Speaking to Rotarians at their noon meeting that day, after a brief introduction by Eric Woolson, a long-time Iowa political strategist, Pauken began by mentioning that he hadn’t known Boone was the birthplace of Mamie Eisenhower and spoke a bit of his time working in the Reagan administration for the ACTION Agency, as well as a bit about meeting President Eisenhower when he was young. (Read the entire article here)