Call it an incentive, call it what you will, but using the "carrot and stick" approach to elicit certain behaviors is a control, plain and simple.  The tax credits you speak of, in my view, are but a small part of an onerous and burdensome Tax Code (refer to my prior post) which needs to be overhauled, if not abolished entirely.  Making someone jump through a series of hoops to claim a perceived "incentive" is in no way voluntary.

As to your assertion that "...American industry responds favorably to tax incentives", I would argue that that is a symptom of the entire problem.  Why else would large corporations spend so much time and money sending lobbyists to Washington to court members of Congress?  Answer: to induce our elected representatives to craft legislation (read: tax incentives) favorable to their own special interests.

Oh, and what about work exported to places like Communist China, where the choice is to either work or get a bullet in the back of the head?  What's so fair about free trade in that regard?  THAT, my friend, is the myth.

We need to get rid of these ridiculous government regulations that punish achievement and force companies overseas.  Creating bigger and more burdensome bureaucracies is not the answer.

Regards,
Scott