Posts in "Corporate Welfare"

By Alan Brooks at 12:56PM

Aug 17, 2011

The Sweetest Sin

In 1984, Coca Cola and Pepsi both announced that it was too expensive to continue using cane sugar to produce their soft drinks and that they would be switching to high fructose corn syrup as a cheaper alternative.

This was in response to the U.S. Customs Service's ban on the importation of sugar from foreign countries in an attempt to artificially inflate the price of domestically produced cane sugar.

The sugar import tariffs and bans, as well as government subsidies for cane sugar farmers and sugar production caps, were started in the early 1800s after the Louisiana Purchase in an attempt to placate sugar farmers. These measures have been continued in one form or another ever since.

Sugar does not grow particularly well in the U.S. Even in the southern states it struggles to flourish. It does, however, grow like a weed in the Caribbean and the Philippines and many foreign farmers relied on their sales to U.S. companies (despite the high import tariffs) for their income.

In order to placate the foreign sugar farmers that suffered as a result of the import bans, then-President Reagan sent aid in the form of wheat, rice, and other grains to the countries affected.

Debt ceiling a product of false debate

Too often left out of the conversation on why America has reached the debt ceiling in the first place is the fact that the government has been forking over trillions (thousands of billions) to the wealthiest people and corporations in the country: Billions in subsidies for Exxon Mobil, Monsanto, and GE. Billions “missing” (embezzled) in Iraq. Billions for failing auto companies. Trillions for the banks that caused the financial crisis in 2008.

Meanwhile, according to Mother Jones, the biggest cause for concern in the budget, even amidst the billions for billionaires, is the rising cost of Medicare. Of course, we could afford even the rising cost of Medicare had we not spent $847 billion on national defense in 2010.

Neither the bulk of Republicans nor Democrats were fighting to reduce war spending. Besides saving trillions, cutting defense spending would also reduce the 320,000 barrels of oil a day officially consumed by the military, a number that ignores fuel consumed by defense contractors and weapons manufacturers. Instead, Congress was busy extracting more revenue from “elderly retirees and broke-ass students” while fighting to preserve “a slew of tax loopholes for the rich, including the carried-interest tax break that allows hedge fund billionaires to pay about half the tax rate of most Americans.”

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

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By Bonnie Kristian at 1:19PM

Mar 4, 2010

Who does the corrupting?

One of the most convenient bugbears of American politics is "the rich," a group which is apparently perpetually engaged in corrupting well-meaning civil servants, taking money from taxpayers in the form of corporate welfare, and all around screwing the populace over by manipulating government for nefarious purposes.

Does this happen sometimes? Well yes, of course. Corporate welfare is just as immoral and unconstitutional as handouts to the poor -- and far less sympathetic and understandable a cause. In fact, as Ron Paul has explained,

It is not only bad economics to force working Americans, small business, and entrepreneurs to subsidize the export of the large corporations: it is also immoral. In fact, this redistribution from the poor and middle class to the wealthy is the most indefensible aspect of the welfare state, yet it is the most accepted form of welfare. [It] never ceases to amaze me how members who criticize welfare for the poor on moral and constitutional grounds see no problem with the even more objectionable programs that provide welfare for the rich.

And it goes without question that corrupt alliances between government and corporations or wealthy individuals are both wrong and illegal. But the question must be asked: Who does the corrupting? Or, as Walter Williams puts it: Who poses the greater threat?