growth and, therefore, stagnant wages. this makes absolutely no sense. there are stagnant wages because companies don t need to pay people more. we are living in a globalized environment. president trump can talk about america first all he wants. we don t have a huge manufacturing presence in the united states. and it is not coming back. one of the ways you can look at that is what s the most successful powerful company out there, amazon. americans made the decision that we want cheap goods and we want them quickly and they re made overseas. so to make this argument that companies need this to grow and pay people more, i turn you to the stock market. the dow has hit 24,000. and yes, it s gotten an extra boost because people are excited about tax reform. but the market is doing very well because companies are flush with cash. when they re flush with cash, they re not paying their employees more. they re doing dividends. they re doing stock buy backs. this is so dangerous. why would re
65% of them said they were going to pay down their own debt. stock buy backs was the number two priority. mergers and acquisitions was number three. the idea of hiring and expansion was mentioned by only 37%. the problem is business leaders d gary cohn had a business meeting and he was shocked more hands asking go up when he asked ceos are you going to use this money to do more hiring increase wages? and the answer was no. without it how do you get the economic expansion that you want? number one, chuck, i haven t seen that study, i didn t do the survey and i don t know who they talked to. economic surveys are a dime a dozen around here. you can fine any economist to say anything you want to around here. but i would encourage you to look at a report done by barrow and red lick out of harvard university. they published it in 2010 and looked at the american economy from 1912 to 2006. it s pretty objective. they said for every 1% reduction
this is going to be helping a lot of working and middle class families. we addressed our tax code and it s not globally competitive. i am finding out it s easier to invest in america as a foreign headquartered company than as an american domiciled company. it s time we change that and i believe the bill that passed the house yesterday does address that very particular situation i am concerned about by moving to a territorialal tax system. as you know, sometimes when you give tax cuts to corporations they don t create jobs and don t invest, what happens is they give stock buy backs and make shareholders
every day working families as jobs start pouring into our country. when companies leave our shores, it s american workers that get hurt. they get fired. when companies stay in america and move to america, it s our wonderful workers that reap the benefits and the rewards. democrats though don t like this plan too much. you mentioned chuck schumer at the top. he said cutting taxes for the wealthiest americans and giant corporations leads to bigger ceo bonuses, more stock buy-backs and dividends for shareholders, not jobs and higher wages. the president says if you make america a good place to do business, companies will stay here as opposed to moving their manufacturing processes or headquarters overseas. that will attract more investment from overseas and that will benefit american workers. trace? john roberts stay with us for a moment if you would. the president continuing to defend his administration s response to the devastation in
you know ed this is just typically. gm as shocking as those numbers are, gm is not a standout. walmart has spent about $65 billion over the last ten year on stock buy-bags too same they xwof risch most of their workers. at the same time that the public spends about $6 billion a year on food stamps and other programs that are required by walmart workers because they re so underpaid. i mean this problem is endemic, and just to be clear, i want to be transparent. i am notice and have been before a director of public companies. i ve done stock buy-backs, too. as a director of a public company, you basically cannot avoid it anymore. it is pervasive, and it s a practice that needs to stop. we are going to have you back to talk more about this. this is part of the economy that does not get enough attention.