2014 NJ Senate debate: on Corporations

Cory Booker: Lower corporate tax rate & close loopholes

• Lowering the corporate tax rate: We must streamline the tax code and lower the statutory corporate rate, which at about 40% is the highest among all peer countries. [We should] reduce the corporate tax rate to near 28%.
• Eliminating misdirected corporate loopholes: The U.S. corporate tax code is teeming with tax breaks, loopholes, and exemptions. Companies take advantage of these special carve-outs to pay much less than the official corporate tax rate--and often pay nothing at all.
• Under our current system, these practices may be perfectly legal, but they aren't fair.

Jeff Bell: Low interest rates favor big businesses over small

"It isn't profitable for them to lend to a business with a certain amount of risk with very low interest rates, so a lot of the lending that would normally set up lines of credit for small business are on the sidelines." Because small businesses are the biggest job creators, the lack of available credit hurts the labor market, he said.

Bell's proposed solution is to return the country to a gold standard, in which a large percentage of the US dollars in circulation are required to be backed by the corresponding value of gold in reserve. He believes doing so will cause interest rates to rise but provide greater long-term economic stability.

Cory Booker: Government procurement should promote women-owned business

I will follow the lead of the many courageous women who have helped achieve the progress we have made, and will do all I can to support their efforts to build a country in which gender does not impact how much you bring home in your paycheck, to what extent you control decisions about your health, or how far you're likely to go in your career.