The Economist on Obama’s proposed corporate tax reform

Mr Obama’s proposal is better than what America already has, but not by much. His well-intentioned goal of broadening the tax base is betrayed by the preferences he insists on maintaining for manufacturing and “green” energy whose economic merits have been questioned, even by former members of his own administration. By maintaining many of the current tax breaks but apportioning them more variably, the tax code would become more complex rather than less so.

Mr Obama’s reform should bolster the case for manufacturing at home, but not by much. Alex Brill of the American Enterprise Institute dryly notes America’s top rate would go from the OECD’s highest to third-highest (once Japan enacts a planned cut); its effective rate would still be above the international average.

Pretty much says it all I think.

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