President Obama’s mission to increase foreign direct investment without changing any tax laws or regulations, or anything else of consequence, and instead instructing cabinet members to be better salesman, is a consummate Chicago move.
A few years ago, when Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker was confronted with the observation that his incredibly valuable starting rotation was worn out, he refused to countenance the idea that ridiculously high pitch counts were to blame. Instead, he averred, his pitchers were tired because of video games and a penchant for walking off the mound between pitches.
Were their arms — and the team’s hopes of reaching a World Series that decade — ruined because of Madden ’03 and a predilection for mound peregrinations? Oh, absolutely, just as it is clear that foreign companies will line up to invest in the U.S. once Gary Locke visits and tells them about this hidden gem of a country they might not have heard about called the United States.
Taxes? Pshaw.
— Ike Brannon is the director of economic policy and the direction of congressional relations for the American Action Forum.