and the return of wealth that is parked overseas. however, the president offered very few specifics on how he plans to execute those goals. joining me now, jared bernstein, adviser to vice president joe biden and cnbc contributor ron insana. ron, i ll start with you. interesting time to be talking about corporate tax cuts. one of the reasons we talk about it it might be an area easier to get agreement on than personal income tax cuts. what is the real truth about american companies and the rate of taxes that they pay compared to those in other countries? well, the stated highest marginal rate that corporations pay is 35% which around the world would be high. the actual rate that they pay is considerably lower. again, if you re holding some of your profits offshore, you re not paying taxes at all. so at the end of the day though, when you look at corporation share of taxes as an overall component of what the government takes in, it s near an historic
of taxes that they pay compared to those in other countries? well, the stated highest marginal rate that corporations pay is 35% which around the world would be high. the actual rate that they pay is considerably lower. again, if you re holding some of your profits offshore, you re not paying taxes at all. so at the end of the day though, when you look at corporation share of taxes as an overall component what the government takes in, it s near historic low relative to what individuals pay and yes, what we re probably talking about here is not comprehensive tax reform. we re probably talking about a package of corporate tax cuts, maybe cuts for individuals who have their own businesses, those would be like limited liability companies, s corporations and things like that. but again, not your average worker making 40,000 or $50,000. people making 700,000, $800,000 a year. the average earner probably see much of a tax cut despite what