Well some of us were up late last night and mad enough to try live blogging the first presidential election debate between John McCain and Barack Obama.
You’ll see the live blogging between myself and Alexia below. Alexia bravely stayed up for the whole thing. But we both were very much awake when John McCain mentioned the Irish Corporate Tax Rate.
He was at an Irish American Event earlier this week and said something about our tax system before and I saw commentary on Irish tax rates pop up everywhere with all sorts of figures and none of them right so when he started off again my ears pricked up. (The Transcript of the debate is available here.)
MCCAIN: Well — well, let me give you an example of what Senator Obama finds objectionable, the business tax.
Right now, the United States of American business pays the second-highest business taxes in the world, 35 percent. Ireland pays 11 percent.
Now, if you’re a business person, and you can locate any place in the world, then, obviously, if you go to the country where it’s 11 percent tax versus 35 percent, you’re going to be able to create jobs, increase your business, make more investment, et cetera.
I want to cut that business tax. I want to cut it so that businesses will remain in — in the United States of America and create jobs.
As the IDA, Wikipedia, KPMG et al tell us – our rate is 12.5% or 25 per cent for passive income. The low low rate of 10 is for some software and financial companies located in a tiny part of Dublin until 2010. Luke and P. O’Neill also picked this up. I’m sure the US blogosphere and MSM have by now picked this up in the fact check that happens post debate. Haven’t they?
And no doubt Irish bloggers will step up to the plate on the matter of the impact of our corporate tax rate (The very short version – how we’ve been a tax haven for American, UK and other international companies for years – with small corporate headquarters all over the city passing millions through their books. )
Recovering from ‘flu, i sat up watching it. The Irish tax figure is wrong, but as the honorary patron of (I think) the Hist in TCD, surely he could have checked that!
McCain was nothing like Professor Farnsworth but he did engage in playing daft and loose with many facts, which demonstrates to me how, underneath it all, his campaign is in desperate shape. (Obama should really fact-check how long McCain spent in Waziristan, etc. cos if his silence at the WH meeting is indicative of his leadership skills, we should be worried. What did he actually *do* in all these places?)
Aside from his sycophantic love of Petraus, news that he played politics with the financial crisis (not a fiscal crisis John, that means tax),is deeply disturbing. He is completely wrong on the need for a bail out.
I really felt the repeated quip to Obama of his not understanding politics/ defence/ Iraq, came extraordinarily close to calling him a dumb person of colour – but I wonder how others interpreted that. The lack of eye-to-eye contact was telling, and I don’t think it is solely about being uncomfortable with TV.
I went to sleep shortly after the tax moment. This morning I watched the rest of the debate and I was stumped by another comment McCain made about Iran posing an existential threat to Israel.
However, it seems it’s a perfectly valid piece of jargon in the military so I’ve had can my fantastically well researched post about how McCain was a secret Satre reader and fan of Simone de Beauvoir’s later work.
http://www.jargondatabase.com/Jargon.aspx?id=1135
There was some minor misspeak by both candidates on the republican/revolutionary guard in Iran.
Wonk Room » McCain Calls For Irish Tax Rates // Sep 29, 2008 at 14:44
[...] Irish corporate tax stands at 12.5%, not 11, but that’s almost besides the point. McCain’s argument is full of so many [...]
Not Live Blogging the Final Debate | Maman Poulet // Oct 16, 2008 at 02:27
[...] John McCain got the Irish Corporate Tax Rate wrong again. It’s actually 12.5 percent Senator, one of the few things that Brian Lenihan, Minister for [...]
McCain on Irish Tax | Keith @ Granite Shavings // Oct 16, 2008 at 03:37
[...] failed to note this, bizarrely. Several people noted it last time. October 16th, 2008 in Politics (Outside Ireland) | tags: corporation tax, debate, fact [...]