The Corporate Welfare State: How the Government Subsidizes U.S. Corporations

by Deborah Lake

This analysis comes from the Cato Institute, a right-wing libertarian group that occasionally provides worthwhile articles that highlight the ills of the current political system. Corporate welfare costs Americans much more than individual welfare, just as corporate crime costs Americans much more than street crime.

I used to be a right wing libertarian. Now I am a left-wing libertarian, since I learned that the "ideal" of free market capitalism will never happen and at best mandates that there always be losers despite individual merit and hard work. If you don't know where you sit in that spectrum, there's a fun little quiz at www.politicalcompass.org you can take.

http://tinyurl.com/2s4qp7

The federal government spent $92 billion in direct and indirect subsidies to businesses and private- sector corporate entities — expenditures commonly referred to as "corporate welfare" — in fiscal year 2006. The definition of business subsidies used in this report is broader than that used by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, which recently put the costs of direct business subsidies at $57 billion in 2005. For the purposes of this study, "corporate welfare" is defined as any federal spending program that provides payments or unique benefits and advantages to specific companies or industries.

Supporters of corporate welfare programs often justify them as remedying some sort of market failure. Often the market failures on which the programs are predicated are either overblown or don't exist. Yet the federal government continues to subsidize some of the biggest companies in America. Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, General Electric, and others have received millions in taxpayer-funded benefits through programs like the Advanced Technology Program and the Export-Import Bank. In addition, the federal crop subsidy programs continue to fund the wealthiest farmers.

Because the corporate welfare state transcends any specific agency — and therefore any specific congressional committee — one way to reform or terminate those programs would be through a corporate welfare reform commission (CWRC). That commission could function like the successful military base closure commission. The CWRC would compose a list of corporate welfare programs to eliminate and then present that list to Congress, which would be required to hold an up-or-down vote on the commission's proposal.

Go to the Original to get the full text of the policy analysis.

US Assistance to Israel 1947-2006

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/U.S._Assistance_to_Israel1.html

Over 1 Trillion of our 9 Trillion National Debt has gone to Israel. Egypt is the second largest recipient of US aid.

The Landlord

http://sjl.funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

This is one of the funniest videos ever!

Animals Have Problems Too

http://www.animalshaveproblemstoo.com/

The Biggest Threat to Democracy in History

Go here to sign a petition to your National representatives and read reasoning behind it

http://www.usalone.com/cgi-bin/petition.cgi?pnum=638

Synopsis

WARNING: a bipartisan Congress will, in the next few days, attempt to violate your #1 Inalienable Right. Having talked to many folks, I’ve not yet found an American who says this warning is not well taken. Although each person I’ve talked to understands they’re being cheated by this; they just tend to think that other Americans won’t listen, or think Americans too busy to preserve their own most basic rights.

WARNING: With computerized voting, your inalienable right to kick the bums out, or your inalienable right to alter or abolish your government through elections, doesn’t exist. It is not secured for you by your government. They are not guaranteeing this right for you. In fact any corrupt election insider could, for money, partisanship, pressure, threat or in the belief of doing a great justice to the whole Nation, alter the election results undetectably, erasing the steps along the way. As long as the total number of votes match up roughly, and one doesn’t cheat more than say 20 percentage points, a whole industry of political pundits will chalk up the surprise victory to the last minute attack ad, or great get out the vote campaign, or a problem with the “loser’s” platform, the weather, or any of dozens of other colorable excuses.

An August 2006 Zogby poll I paid for with help from Nancy Tobi of New Hampshire and Michael Collins of electionfraudnews.com established that an incredible 92% of Americans supported a vote counting system where vote counting is observable by the public and the public can obtain information about vote counting. http://www.zogby.com/News/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1163 This is one of the highest political values ever measured in polls, yet the 90% secret vote counting that is taking place in America shows how incredibly out of touch our government, of both parties, is with every demographic group in America.

A Threat to Democracy, Privatized Electronic Voting

Go here to sign a petition to your National representatives and read reasoning behind it

http://www.usalone.com/cgi-bin/petition.cgi?pnum=638

Synopsis

WARNING: a bipartisan Congress will, in the next few days, attempt to violate your #1 Inalienable Right. Having talked to many folks, I’ve not yet found an American who says this warning is not well taken. Although each person I’ve talked to understands they’re being cheated by this; they just tend to think that other Americans won’t listen, or think Americans too busy to preserve their own most basic rights.

WARNING: With computerized voting, your inalienable right to kick the bums out, or your inalienable right to alter or abolish your government through elections, doesn’t exist. It is not secured for you by your government. They are not guaranteeing this right for you. In fact any corrupt election insider could, for money, partisanship, pressure, threat or in the belief of doing a great justice to the whole Nation, alter the election results undetectably, erasing the steps along the way. As long as the total number of votes match up roughly, and one doesn’t cheat more than say 20 percentage points, a whole industry of political pundits will chalk up the surprise victory to the last minute attack ad, or great get out the vote campaign, or a problem with the “loser’s” platform, the weather, or any of dozens of other colorable excuses.

An August 2006 Zogby poll I paid for with help from Nancy Tobi of New Hampshire and Michael Collins of electionfraudnews.com established that an incredible 92% of Americans supported a vote counting system where vote counting is observable by the public and the public can obtain information about vote counting. http://www.zogby.com/News/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1163 This is one of the highest political values ever measured in polls, yet the 90% secret vote counting that is taking place in America shows how incredibly out of touch our government, of both parties, is with every demographic group in America.

Politics Lobby 10: On The Move (From Yahoo)

As I pen this missive, Ann_Coulter2 is in the new Paltalk Room, Politics Lobby 10, talking in her inimitable fascist style. Is it Ann? I don't know. It seems, she too, is leaning left these days (maybe, we could only hope).

Thanks to thephoenix (sic) there is a more civil place to run this liberal think tank from. This is an administered room where bots from ovrbearing chatters cannot and will not rule the day.

Paltalk is not Yahoo. I has its advantages and is not tweakable (much yet) like Yahelite, Yazak is to yahoo, though there are alternative program add-ons.

This is room is an exodus from politics lobby 10 in yahoo. And a migration to a new vision of a just, honest, and progressive reality.

We all keep each other informed there and try to take the weight of the world off each others shoulders.

The world is watching, we are watching, and trying to make constructive sense of some progressive action that will benefit all.

Politics Lobby 10: On The Move (From Yahoo)

As I pen this missive, Ann_Coulter2 is in the new Paltalk Room, Politics Lobby 10, talking in her inimitable fascist style. Is it Ann? I don't know. It seems, she too, is leaning left these days (maybe, we could only hope).

Thanks to thephoenix (sic) there is a more civil place to run this liberal think tank from. This is an administered room where bots from ovrbearing chatters cannot and will not rule the day.

Paltalk is not Yahoo. I has its advantages and is not tweakable (much yet) like Yahelite, Yazak is to yahoo, though there are alternative program add-ons.

This is room is an exodus from politics lobby 10 in yahoo. And a migration to a new vision of a just, honest, and progressive reality.

We all keep each other informed there and try to take the weight of the world off each others shoulders.

The world is watching, we are watching, and trying to make constructive sense of some progressive action that will benefit all.