Paul Ryan: Blame Obama For Burger King's Move To Canada

After the American fast food chain Burger King recently announced it would be moving its headquarters to Canada, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan says consumers should blame President Obama and his economic policies as the reason for the restaurant's decision.

Many critics are arguing that Burger King chose to move its headquarters to Canada to avoid the high corporate tax rate in the U.S., although the fast food corporation has argued that its relocation is not tax-driven.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who is also the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, said on "The Steve Malzberg Show" this week that the Obama administration's tax policy weakens America's competitiveness in maintaining major corporations, who often take their business overseas to avoid the steep corporate business tax requirements in the U.S.

"We are quickly losing American iconic brands because of our government and our policy," Ryan said on the show. "You need to get our tax system competitive," he continued. "We are taxing these jobs overseas. These companies are either going to do this or get taken over by foreign companies."

Ryan further elaborated his point to Yahoo! Finance, saying: "The fact of the matter is America is not as competitive as it needs to be, and when you tax American corporations at much higher tax rates than our foreign competitors tax theirs, they win, we lose — it's just that simple."

Burger King, who announced this week that they are purchasing the Canadian fast food chain Tim Hortons, has denied claims that it is switching over the border to avoid high taxes. Rather, the chain told the New York Times that it did so to appease Canadian regulators who may be apprehensive of an American company taking over a major Canadian corporation.