Romney slams Biden over 'global minimum tax' proposal

Mitt Romney released a statement Friday hammering Vice President Biden for suggesting a "global minimum tax" at a campaign stop in Iowa earlier this week, arguing the proposal would harm American companies' ability to compete internationally.

“Raising taxes on American job creators is apparently not enough to satisfy President’s Obama’s trillion-dollar spending addiction. Instead of promoting pro-growth tax policies that provide businesses with the economic freedom to grow and prosper, he is backing a ‘global tax’ that would harm American competitiveness," Romney said in a statement released by the campaign. "My plan to reform the tax code by cutting rates and encouraging reinvestment here in America is the right way to jump-start an economic recovery and create new American jobs.”

Biden made the comment while campaigning in Davenport, Iowa, on Wednesday.

"For years, American manufacturers have faced one of the highest tax rates in the world. We want to reduce that by over 20 percent. We want to drop the rate, particularly, for high-tech manufacturers like you … even further than the 20 percent," Biden said. "We want to create (what's called) a global minimum tax, because American taxpayers shouldn't be providing a larger subsidy for investing abroad than investing at home."

The line raised eyebrows across the conservative blogosphere, with critics wondering whether Biden was proposing either increased taxes on corporations or giving an international body the ability to tax American corporations.

But Biden was likely just referring to the international minimum tax that the White House has suggested before, under which the American government would impose a domestic tax on American companies that were shipping jobs — or profits — overseas to avoid paying taxes.

"The President is proposing to eliminate tax incentives to ship jobs offshore by ensuring that all American companies pay a minimum tax on their overseas profits, preventing other countries from attracting American business through unusually low tax rates. The savings would be invested in cutting taxes here at home, especially for manufacturing," the White House said in a January fact sheet on the president's manufacturing proposals.

National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling made waves when he similarly referred to the proposal as a "global minimum tax" in February.

President Obama has also advocated the program while on the stump, mentioning the proposal in a February speech to plant workers in Milwaukee, Wis.

“From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax,” Obama said.

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