Patriotic taxes

Re “Tax, don’t punish, businesses,” Opinion, July 3

Yuri Vanetik’s selfserving justification for lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate would be funny if it weren’t so tragic for the U.S. economy.

First, corporations, special interests and the wealthy have basically written our tax laws to provide themselves with outrageous benefits, so they have basically created this mess.

Second, if a corporation’s fiduciary responsibility is to “legally maximize shareholder value,” it follows that this kind of tax reform would benefit corporations even more than it does now.

Corporations, be patriotic for once and bring your earnings home, pay your taxes, pay decent wages and stop whining about how hard it is to make record profits under such an onerous tax code. America will thank you by having a stronger economy that will “maximize shareholder value” without eviscerating our country in the process.

Thomas McGovern

San Bernardino