Newt Gingrich on corporations using tax loopholes to avoid paying their share, ‘that is not a loophole. That’s an incentive.’
KEYES: But in general, corporations who are making millions and millions in profit but then not contributing anything to the United States government. Do you think that’s fair?
GINGRICH: First of all, if they make millions and millions in profit, they probably employ thousands and thousands of people and those thousands and thousands of people are contributing a lot to America. I am for the maximum job creation in the United States and I think that means lower taxes, not higher taxes. It means less regulations, not more regulation.
KEYES: But you don’t think we should try to be forcing them to pay what they owe?
GINGRICH: First of all, they don’t owe that. If what they did was legal, and if it was designed to create more jobs. For example, if we gave you 100 percent write-off for new equipment so you could compete with China, and you use that 100 percent write-off, you actually did what we wanted you to do. […] You have to go ask Arch [Coal] “what is it they did right in order to lower their tax liability and did it create jobs in America?”
KEYES: Would you like to see those corporate tax loopholes closed though? [crosstalk]
GINGRICH: I just want to say this because it’s an important difference in how we approach this. If we give you an incentive to do something right that creates more jobs, that is not a loophole. That’s an incentive. If you then intelligently follow that incentive and create more jobs, we should celebrate that as a good thing.
Think Progress has more fun with Newt.