Over at Business Insider, Joe Weisenthal discusses the political implications of Burger King's purchase of Canadian donut company Tim Hortons. The home of the whopper and the ... home of the maple bear claw (or whatever) will merge and Burger King will, for tax purposes, become a Canadian company. This is called a "tax inversion," and American companies have been partaking in such moves to avoid America's punitively high corporate tax rates. Here's Jon Hartley explaining why it makes sense for Burger King to abandon America for the Great White North:
Canada’s corporate tax rate in Ontario of 26.5% (the federal rate of 15% plus Ontario’s provincial corporate tax rate of 11.5%) is considerably favorable to the American corporate tax rate of 35% thanks in large part to the conservative Canadian government led by Stephen Harper. The Harper government lowered the federal tax rate to 15% in 2012 down originally from 28% since it took office in 2006.
Weisenthal thinks that BK's move plays right into the hands of the Democrats:
The news gives Democrats another talking point. The potential departure of an iconic American company because of "corporate greed" will be trotted out on the campaign trail.
Now, this is undoubtedly the narrative that the media will go with, because the media, writ large,* believes that corporations (and the super-wealthy, though not the modestly wealthy because many upper-level journos are in the modestly wealthy bracket) should be paying higher taxes. So they'll be more than happy to parrot Democratic talking points about greedy corporations and such.
But the Republicans have a chance to lay out a winning message. And that message is this: Canada Sucks.
Now, obviously, they'll have to finesse it some because it's no good for our politicians to go around slagging a dear friend and reliable ally like Canada. The Canucks'll get upset about it, and I wouldn't blame them. But the simple fact of the matter is that it should be quite easy for Republicans to parlay anti-Canadian sentiment into votes and policy. The message, it seems, is a simple one:
America used to be the land of opportunity, the place where people came to succeed. Now, our greatest companies—companies like Burger King, which employs tens of thousands of hardworking Americans—are fleeing to countries such as Canada to escape our punitive tax rate. With a do-nothing Senate and president more concerned about his handicap than doing anything aboot our outdated tax laws, who can blame them?
In 2014, you have a choice. You can choose an America that countries flee from or an America that countries flock to.
That would be the official message, of course. The grassroots message—the message promulgated by the PACs and the C4s and whatnot—would be much more simple:
The lowbrow and highbrow appeal—the appeal to base jingoism and a saner tax policy—would provide an unstoppable one-two punch, one that would rile up the base and provide a stark contrast with pro-Canadian Democrats who are happy seeing our businesses flee for better tax climates.
*Note: I do not mean to suggest that Weisenthal himself believes this, though he might. I'm just saying the media at lar