David Harsanyi Reacts to the Left’s Reaction to Burger King

Burger King plans to merge
with Canuck coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons and base
the company’s headquarters in Canada, where it will enjoy the kind
of reasonable corporate tax structure that Democrats continue to
obstruct here in the United States. And the move has provoked
a fresh
round of moral panic, faux patriotism, and confusion from
those on the left. 

But the Burger King move isn’t really about tax “inversion”
anyway, argues David Harsanyi. This is a merger. Tim Hortons has a
$9.9 billion market cap and generated more revenue than Burger King
last year, so it seems implausible that the deal was made for
reasons of tax sedition alone. When you merge with a company from
another country, one that helps diversify your reach worldwide, it
seems like a basic fiduciary responsibility to place your
headquarters in the spot that offers you the best business climate.
And that’s probably what’s driving a lot of the overwrought
reaction to this merger: The consequences of high corporate
taxation could not be more apparent. 

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