Several top U.S. executives said Thursday they would accept a repeal of tax breaks such as the corporate research tax credit in exchange for lower tax rates.

"I would trade it in a minute for a simple, lower rate," Safra Catz, president and chief financial officer at Oracle Corp. (ORCL), told a Treasury Department tax conference. While her software firm backs the corporate research credit, she believes the broader U.S. economy would benefit from corporate tax cut.

The chief executives of Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and FedEx Corp. (FDX) offered similar sentiments during the morning-long tax hearing, organized by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr.

"I would happily trade all of the credits for simplification and a lower tax rate," said James Owens, Caterpillar's CEO and chairman. "I think that will benefit the U.S. economy and the global race that we are in."

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