McDonald's Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner
Want to get the economy growing again? McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner says that Washington needs to cut taxes and get spending under control in order to make that happen. The Telegraph reports:
“The question is, how can we get the ox out of the ditch?” Mr. Skinner said. “In order to create jobs in America, you’re going to have to cut taxes… particularly in the business community.
“We pay some of the highest [corporate] taxes around the world. There needs to be some levelling.”
Asked about federal borrowing, he said: “It’s not a good story… the government has to spend less. We have to grow the economy, grow GDP… and you have to be able to do it in an organic way and not through borrowings and increasing debt.”
McDonald’s army of blue-collar customers need more clarity on core issues, such as healthcare, he said. “Until all of that is all defined and certain… we’re going to continue to have a fragile environment for consumer confidence.”
Skinner isn’t the only corporate executive to offer Washington–and President Obama–some advice on job creation.
In July, Steve Wynn, CEO of the Las Vegas-based casino company Wynn Resorts, said that the Obama Administration is “the greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation in my lifetime,” due to its class warrior approach to economic policy. Specifically, Wynn pointed to new regulations, increasing healthcare costs, and rhetoric calling for a redistribution of wealth–all of which, he says, “makes you slow down and not invest your money.”
Likewise, Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, said the U.S. government is the single biggest impediment to job growth in America today. He pointed to “rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business.”
And in a new biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs, released after his death, it is reported that he met with President Obama and warned him that his anti-business attitude and enthusiasm for federal regulations could jeopardize his re-election campaign, as Heritage’s Lachlan Markay writes. Jobs reportedly told the President that “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for companies to locate in the United States.
