Is There Room For Compromise On Corporate Taxes ?

Donald Trump has said he wants to cut the amount of income tax that corporations must pay -- and that is also something that congressional Republicans have wanted to do for years. It is also something that Democrats generally oppose. Is there room for compromise?

As the chart above shows, many corporations don't pay any taxes at all right now (and a lot of them actually get money from the government while paying no taxes -- even though they had millions of dollars in profit). In fact, about 20% of all American corporations pay no taxes at all. That's because of all the tax loopholes and subsidies they have.

If taxes are cut for corporations, and those loopholes and subsidies are left in place, both the deficit and the national debt would balloon out of control -- because corporations already pay a smaller percentage of total income taxes than at any time since World War II, and that would just further shrink that percentage. It simply doesn't make sense.

But here's an idea. What if we cut corporate taxes AND eliminate the loopholes and subsidies that allow too many of them to pay no taxes at all? In other words, make sure that ALL corporations must pay the lower tax.

The "freedom caucus" (congressional teabaggers) would not go along. They like the idea of corporations paying no taxes, and they are not willing to compromise on anything (believing ideology is more important than compromising for the good of the country). But they don't make up a majority of congressional Republicans.

I believe there are enough Democrats who would go along with lower corporate taxes, if the loopholes & subsidies were eliminated -- and all corporations had to pay income taxes. The question is -- would the more moderate Republican right-wingers be willing to make that compromise? Or have they been thoroughly bought by the giant non-taxpaying corporations?

I doubt the GOP would agree to this idea -- but if they are serious about cutting taxes for corporations, and are willing to compromise to get it done, then this is a way to make it happen.