The main ballroom at the St. Louis Ritz-Carlton was filled to capacity with Republican Party activists and St. Louis community leaders last night for the annual “Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award” that was bestowed on Emerson Electric CEO David Farr.
Mr. Farr is an accomplished public speaker and he got several very strong rounds of applause in his speech, but one statement he made provoked the proverbial “pin-drop” silence. Mr. Farr was commenting about the reasons businesses invest in national economies and what causes them to suspend their investments. He was talking about the huge increases in taxes starting in 2011 as the Bush tax cuts expire and also the onerous costs of Obamacare. Here is the statement that caused the silence.
“Right now, there is not a single incentive for a company to invest in America.”
That caused us to look around the table to gauge each other’s reaction. It was grim. Here was the CEO of a $22 billion company with 145,000 employees telling us that he didn’t have a single reason to hire new employees, invest in capital goods or expand his business in any significant way.
What an indictment of the job-killing policies of the current regime. The same dreary litany of higher and higher taxes, more and more regulation, less and less opportunity and the inevitable drift, stagnation and Jimmy Carter-style “malaise.”
Even though that phrase had a sobering effect on the crowd, I don’t want to give the impression that we were anything but fired up. We recognize the seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in, but we also recognize that there is something we can do about it come November. We can, to use an increasingly popular expression….”throw the bums out!”
~~John Cronin~~
A guy that pulls down 8.5M$ a year, while outsourcing 100% of new jobs….. how in the world is he worthy of a reward for Entrepreneurship? Even for the GOP, this should catch in your throat.
This is the bum that should be thrown out.
Mr. Nixon, maybe you overlooked a quote in the post: “Right now, there is not a single incentive for a company to invest in America.”
There are very few companies in this country that would go to the time, trouble and expense of moving some of their operations overseas if the investment climate in this country was favorable to conducting a PROFITABLE business.
We need to cut taxes for individuals and for businesses, cut government substantially, repeal Obamacare, control our borders and throw the Democrats out of Congress in 2010 and out of the White House in 2012….for starters!
Bullshit. Healthcare was in screaming need of revision; and we need to go further. Mindlessly echoing phrases created by twits like Glenn Beck do nothing to improve life in the USA. Companies and rich need to pay their fair share of taxes. Something like 20% of the Fortune 500 companies did not pay a single cent in taxes – like Exxon for example.
The party of NO, has no fresh ideas, and mindlessly trying to impede every effort of the Democrats is NOT what their constituents sent them to Washington to do.
“rich need to pay their fair share of taxes”….and you say “mindlessly echoing phrases created by twits like Glenn Beck?” I conservatively estimate that I have heard leftie politicians and pundits say “the rich need to pay their fair share of taxes” at least 500 times over the years.
Another point: If some Fortune 500 companies don’t pay any taxes it is, in part, because Democrat politicians have voted for these provisions. Or will you suggest that the U.S. Tax Code is 100% the product of rich, mean-spirited, evil Republicans protecting their own?