In a speech at the National Chamber Foundation's 2012 Jobs Summit, Tom Donohue, the U.S. Chamber's President and CEO, talked about how important tax reform is to creating jobs and growing the economy:

No one would hold up America’s byzantine tax code as a model of efficiency or clarity or an engine of economic growth.

Our tax code must be restructured so that it is simple and clear, spurs growth, encourages investment, and efficiently generates revenues to reduce the deficit and meet our national priorities. We must enact comprehensive tax reform that broadens the base, lowers all businesses rates, and reduces the burdens of compliance. This reform should reduce the corporate tax rate—the highest in the world— and drive innovation by permanently extending the R&D tax credit.

We must also do away with specific tax provisions that target innovators, like the $20 billion tax on medical devices that will take effect next year under Obamacare. This excise tax would squelch innovation in the medical technology industry, responsible for such vital devices as defibrillators, pacemakers, and prosthetics. It would threaten 43,000 industry jobs, disadvantage U.S. businesses, and drive some companies and their jobs overseas.

The Chamber is pushing for repeal of the medical device tax, and we will fight against other tax provisions that crush innovation and growth.

Innovation depends on a rational, efficient, and globally competitive tax system—and currently, that’s not what we’ve got.

[Video via RealClearPolitics]