Let's talk more about it with O'Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin
O'Leary, who joins us now.
Kevin, you're a business guy who makes decisions about where
to invest and how important a lower corporate tax rate
is.
What does it mean for American workers if the tax
rate is 28% or 20%?
What difference does that make for American workers?
Well, we're starting to see debate in this presidential cycle
around policy, and this is a big one.
So the obviously Trump administration proposing as low as 15
to 21 and Biden at 28.
What this really says is where do you fit in
the G7 and G20 in terms of competition?
Right now, we're sort of in the top of the
second quartile.
Going to 28 puts you in terms of tax competitiveness
at the bottom.
And that's not good because over time, it's not just
domestic capital that matters.
It's attracting capital to America for CapEx expenditures to create
jobs.
And so when you make yourself incredibly uncompetitive on a
corporate tax rate basis at 28, you're going to scare
away capital and slowly that will show up.
And that's how we had all that contortion 1015 years
ago when companies, drug companies particularly left for Ireland.
You, you can't tax companies into oblivion.
They just move.
Companies aren't people, they're entities.
Can we talk about people?
Because Trump is coming out and he says that he
wants to reduce or eliminate taxes on tips.
Do you like that?
That was really interesting for Nevada, which is a very,
very pro kind of individual entrepreneur 1099 kind of economy
where you make your money on tips and obviously you're
dealing with taxes.
This has been a debate for a very long time,
particularly in the gig economy.
It's a smart political move.
It's going to help a lot of people that are
self-employed if you think about it that way.
And that's what I see it for.
Is it a massive economic move?
Not really.
It's a it's a good rounder kind of let's get
some votes in states where we don't think we're going
to win.
I get it.
I totally get it.
And not a bad move.
But it's not it's not a big game changer for
American competition.
And when you talk about a corporate tax rate that
Biden is proposing about 28%, Kevin, I think about the
restaurant industry already suffering.
You're seeing fast food chains closing stores and also laying
off employees.
They've got higher costs, they're paying higher wages.
Then you're seeing less foot traffic.
That tells me that fundamentally things are slowing down.
That's not the time that you want to squeeze these
businesses harder.
No, it's a, it's a triple whammy.
You have people's preferences and how they dine after the
pandemic has changed dramatically.
They don't go out as much.
And that's nothing to do with inflation.
Then you have inflation itself, both in the protein inflation
and in the case of Red Lobster protein and the
lobster meats, very, very volatile and in the price, and
it's really hurt them.
But also you've got policy mistakes.
I'm here in California shooting season 16 of Shark Tank.
The the casual dining sector in this state has been
decimated by policy mistake on minimum wage.
They're shutting down left and right.
I mean, Gavin Newsom made a huge mistake.
I think he knows that now he's turning this state
into a sort of a version of Venezuela and it's
just killing business, not only not only in restaurants, but
in everything.
There's all kinds of capital leaving here for more competitive
states.
And that's a good thing.
Competition of states in America.
You see what's going on in Tennessee, Florida, Texas, They're
dragging all these, these companies that can't make money anymore
In Gavin Newsom's, I can't be, listen, I've met him.
He's a nice guy, but I can't be more critical
for his policies.
He's a bad manager.
He's a he's, he's decimated this place.
I've been coming here for 15 years.
This is a shell of what it used to be,
but it also speaks to your point.
Companies, businesses, they're entities, they can move with their feet
to show you that they don't support the policy.