we should be pursuing all those. >> pistons 4 mr. duke or mr. -- this is for mr. duke or mr. merlo. what does it mean when you compete abroad with companies that are not u.s.-based? it comes back to the question that -- who are your major competitors and where are they headquartered and what challenges to the tax system present for you as you seek to expand markets around? >> senator, i could quickly named three large multinational retailer is that we compete against around the world. tesko from the u.k. and metro from germany. we often compete for specific real estate sites to build new stores in markets around the world. that means there is an advantage in the calculation of return on investment. their return would be at a lower rate. an example of tesko in china, we would compete against recently. we would pay the 25% tax rate and an additional 10% as far as the u.s. rate. all sell, and it comes into play when even acquiring the business, and then, as i mentioned, tesco is now building stores and growing in the u.s. we are actually opening the door for foreign retailers to have a

mr. duke? >> mr. chairman, with the lower overall corporate tax rate that would be competitive in the global marble place, such as in the mid 20's, then we would be able to look at every aspect of those incentives we participate in, and we pleeg all should be on the table for discussion. >> so you are basically saying you would be willing to give it up as long as the corporate rate is mid 20's or something like that? >> yes, sir. if we are competitive against other markets we are competing against. >> mr. falk? >> i would give the same answer. we take advantage of the r and d credit and the manufacturing credit. we spend about $500 million in capital this country. as the rate drops from 40% to 22% or 23% or 25% -- >> talking about the federal right now. i can't speak for the state and local. >> those innocentives are a lot less valuable. >> mr. lang? >> in the semiconductoror industry working group, we have had this exact conversation, and i would agree that everything should be on the table. we shoul

mr. duke. >> mr. chairman, with the -- first the overall lower corporate tax rate that would be competitive in the global marketplace such as in the mid 20's, for example, then we would be willing to look at every aspect of those incentives that we participate in. we believe that all should be on the table for discussion. >> so you are basically saying, are you willing to give it up as long as your rate, your headline rate, corporate rate is say mid 20's or something like that? >> yes, sir. if we are competitive against other markets that we are competing against. >> mr. falk. >> i mentioned in my comments we take advantage of the r&d credit, we take advantage of the manufacturing credit. we spend about half a billion dollars in capital in this country every year to take advantage of depreciation. as the rate drops from near 40% to 22%, 23%, or 25%. >> talking about the federal. >> yeah. you start -- those incentives are a lot less valuable. >> mr. lang? >> i just in the semiconductor industry associa

and the same principles that mr. duke mentioned apply, and create some competitive challenges. >> thank you. my time has expired. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. >> senator conrad. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you very much for holding this hearing. i think it is so important. i was part of the fiscal commission, as was the chairman of the committee. i have been part of the group of six. both of them concluded you got to have fundamental tax reform, to broaden the base at lower rates, help us be more competitive, at the same time raise additional revenue to couple with entitlement reform and to couple with he domestic spending reductions in order to get our debt down. that is the fundamental framework of both the fiscal commission and the group of six. i just would like quickly to ask each of you, does that fundamental framework make sense to you. mr. duke? >> senator, the fundamental framework of debt reduction and fiscal responsibility certainly makes sense, and the comprehensive corporate tax reform we thin

we will start with mr. duke, if you could briefly touch on that. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first of all, i would say in the growth overseas, when wal-mart rose overseas, we bring american companies with us, and i would welcome any members of the committee to let us show you a wal-mart store in countries outside the united states. what we export to markets around the world. to those products that are on the shelves that are produced by american companies, it would be an example. the other would be even here in the united states and the growth and opportunity here in the u.s., since we operate and build a retail stores. our employment is at four levels. we are not manufacturing the product, but we deliver it directly to consumers, -- >> essentially, you are saying -- >> we would do both. for a store that is open overseas, clearly, it would be both. i am not able to quantify one compared to the other because we open a small stores and large stores, but it would create -- we open small stores and large stores. >> my time is limited. >> this is just going to mean that we will se

duke? >> thank you, mr. chairman. following up on the chairman's questions about impact on consumers. other countries have implemented restrictions on interchange fees. could you talk about the experience they've seen respective to account holder fees, savings passed on by retailers, changes in discounts for different methods of payment? >> sure. there are two types of scenarios one could look at when looking at other counteds. one would be places where there's a government intervention to lower interchange fees. the second would be countries with a payment card system with low ore zero interchange fees. it can be hard to draw conclusions about the affect of interchange fees on the outcome for consumers, banks and payment card networks. there are a lot of moving parts. there are a couple of general conclusions one can draw by looking at case studies in other countries. in response to change and interchange fees due to government intervention, there are often changes in account terms for card holders. for example, in a

duke? >> thank you, mr. chairman.impact on consumers. other countries have implemented restrictions on interchange fees. could you talk about the experience they've seen respective to account holder fees, savings passed on by retailers, changes in discounts for different methods of payment? >> sure. there are two types of scenarios one could look at when looking at other counteds. one would be places where there's a government intervention to lower interchange fees. the second would be countries with a payment card system with low ore zero interchange fees. it can be hard to draw conclusions about the affect of interchange fees on the outcome for consumers, banks and payment card networks. there are a lot of moving parts. there are a couple of general conclusions one can draw by looking at case studies in other countries. in response to change and interchange fees due to government intervention, there are often changes in account terms for card holders. for example, in australia when the reserve bank of australia lowe

mr. strauss-kahn, everybody thinks that she's just a liar. >> you are a wonderful, sometimes patient woman. >> l.a. is not quite going to know what's hit it when the duke from old prince albert. >> no, their kiss -- odd. >> there's a lot of talk about that, the whole wedding. >> next week, prince william and kate departing california, heading to california. >> this morning. >> the sunny shores. >> her first time to the states. many, many people are looking forward to seeing them in l.a. they have lots of expensive events lined up. >> that's right. the major league baseball game coming this. "insomniac theater." [ david ] well, i basically started noticing my hair loss a couple years ago, soi started using rogaine foam. [ male announcer ] only rogaine foam is shown to regrow hair in 85%of guys. it just brought about lot of confidence. [ male announcer ] try new unscented rogae foam. learn more at rogaine.com. i'm gonna need my biggest player. a change in the lineup? [ female announcer ] one bottle of ultra dawn has the grease-cleaning power of two of this competing brand. [ sponge ] way to go, kid. [ female announcer ] dawn does more... >>> all right. t