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One way we gave small businesses more money to invest was by extending tax provisions on expensing. This allows businesses to immediately write off things like equipment, without being burdened by depreciation requirements.

But, at the same time, I think that there is room for economic stimulus in terms of accelerated depreciation to encourage businesses to invest and to grow and ultimately to hire more people again.

Food manufacturing is an ideal candidate for targeted accelerated depreciation because the food industry, our biggest industry, creates significant flow-on benefits.

I've heard time and again from small business owners in Ohio that extending bonus depreciation is the single biggest factor in allowing their businesses to grow. Allowing companies to use these tools for capital reinvestment is a common-sense way to encourage job creation.

It's easy: if you want to grow the economy, encourage job creation, and increase federal revenue, you support making bonus depreciation permanent. Permanency gives job creators the certainty they need to plan and invest in their businesses, including hiring employees.

The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility and flow of risk capital... the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy.

Corporate tax dodging impacts us across generations and over time. It is corrosive. It is unethical. It is unsustainable.

The corporate income tax, in particular, is a tax that puts American corporations at a disadvantage.

Once you privatize something, it becomes a for-profit business.

We accelerated our capital spending in the fourth quarter, particularly in international and next-generation network deployment, which should not only sustain future revenue growth but also drive significant cost reductions across all communications services.