[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 64 (Tuesday, May 8, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H2334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PRIVATE SECTOR GROWTH SUFFOCATED BY HIGH TAXES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. I rise today to highlight an example of how private sector 
businesses grow and contribute to our society when they're not 
suffocated by unnecessarily high taxes, and I rise to dispel a myth 
that our colleagues continue to perpetuate about energy taxes.
  On April 24, The Wall Street Journal ran an article calling Apple 
Incorporated ``the most valuable company'' in the world. Am I happy 
about that? Am I happy about Apple's success? You bet I am, and so are 
most people in the United States. Later that week, on April 28, The New 
York Times wrote a similar article that reported on Apple's creative 
but legal tax strategy that saves them billions in tax payments each 
year. The Times article reported ``the company paid cash taxes of $3.3 
billion around the world on its reported profits of $34.2 billion last 
year, a tax rate of 9.8 percent.'' Comparatively, Wal-Mart paid a tax 
rate of 24 percent.

                              {time}  1030

  When Apple was asked for comments on their exceptionally low tax 
rate, they responded:

       By focusing on innovation, we've created entirely new 
     products and industries, and more than 500,000 jobs for U.S. 
     workers--from the people who create components for our 
     products to the people who deliver them to our customers.

  They also mentioned:

       In the first half of fiscal year 2012, our U.S. operations 
     have generated almost $5 billion in Federal and State income 
     taxes.

  Mr. Speaker, Apple's experiences are instructive to us. First, the 
Federal Tax Code is too complicated. It allows only the largest 
companies who can afford to hire Tax Code interpreters to benefit from 
lower taxes. We should simplify the Tax Code by closing the loopholes 
and lower rates across the board to boost American competitiveness for 
all companies large and small.
  Both history and Apple's experience underscore how increasing taxes 
without accompanying comprehensive reform has never and will never 
represent a sustainable, long-term strategy to any budgetary problems. 
On the contrary, cutting taxes does create economic growth, which fuels 
Federal revenue windfalls for reducing the deficit. These lessons 
should be applied to the entire Tax Code. Instead of increasing taxes 
on American energy producers, we should focus on simplifying the 
Federal code to encourage the development of domestic energy resources 
which, in turn, bolsters employment opportunities here at home.
  Again, am I pleased about Apple's success? Absolutely. But we never 
hear from our Democrat friends about the low tax rates paid by 
companies like Apple. However, they attack domestic energy producers 
and ignore the simple truth that it is the American people who actually 
own these companies and benefit from the respective profits that they 
make. According to the American Petroleum Institute, mutual funds and 
other firms hold almost 30 percent of oil stocks; pension funds hold 27 
percent; individual investors hold 23 percent; 14 percent is held in 
individual retirement accounts; other institutional investments hold 5 
percent; and corporate management holds just 1.5 percent.
  Despite what liberal Democrats would have you believe, increasing 
domestic energy production not only helps lower prices and produce 
jobs; it also helps boost stocks, mutual funds, IRAs, and pension funds 
owned by millions of Americans.
  Democrats constantly talk about subsidies to oil and energy 
companies. Our energy companies don't receive any subsidies. That is a 
myth that they perpetuate. Solyndra got a subsidy--lots of these new 
energy types get subsidies--but not the traditional energy companies. 
It's time that we as government officials get out of the way. Instead 
of increasing the bureaucracy and red tape, we need to focus on 
creating an environment for American private sector businesses to 
better compete in the global marketplace and give back to local 
communities in the form of jobs rather than sending more money to the 
Federal Government.

                          ____________________