CEOs Press Congress And Obama For Lower Taxes And Smarter Regulation

Dozens of CEOs freshly out of their meeting with the Blue Dog Coalition have worked through a Business Roundtable lobbying meeting to reveal their proposals for boosting the economy today.

Their plan, known as Taking Action for America, is calling for a balanced federal budget, reform of regulations at the federal level and a lower tax rate for corporations that would use a territorial tax system as well as other changes.

President of Roundtable, former governor of Michigan, John Engler (R) and the contingent of CEOs met with President Obama Tuesday evening and are scheduled to meet with Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary today.

Jim McNerney is chairman of Roundtable as well as CEO of the Boeing Co. and says the purpose of the meetings is to focus on re-energizing the economy that has been slow in growth in order to put Americans back to work.

According to McNerney, the country cannot be successful in attempts to repair the economy if businesses and the government remain divided, and as long as the government remains divided due to partisan politics.  McNerney says that the changes should not wait until after the elections in November to act on these proposals, including lower taxes.

Dow Chemical Co. president and CEO, Andrew Liveris, says that the country cannot afford inaction from the nation’s capitol.

Members of the Roundtable, who are CEOs of the nation’s largest corporations, stress that smart regulation does not mean doing away with all regulations.  However, the group has identified some of the regulations considered costly to businesses and overly complex.

President and CEO of Procter & Gamble, Bob McDonald chairs the tax and fiscal policy committee of Roundtable and claims that the US corporate tax will be highest in the world within the next three weeks as Japan chooses to lower its rate.  Obama has recently released a proposal to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%.  The CEOs however are pushing for lowering the rate to 25%.

McDonald says that it is time to stop the talks and get something done.

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