Cutting Corporate WelfareIn this groundbreaking pamphlet, based on testimony he delivered before Congress, Ralph Nader describes how corporations are picking our pockets, and what we can do to stop them. While the United States continues to experience unprecedented cuts in social service programs and millions of Americans go without health insurance, massive corporations continue to reap huge sums of taxpayer money through "corporate welfare"—corporate subsidies, bailouts, giveaways, and tax escapes. Cutting Corporate Welfare details numerous appalling examples of corporate welfare, including: the giveaway of the public airwaves, which by definition belong to the people, to private radio and television stations (including the latest $70 billion gift of the digital spectrum); taxpayer subsidies for giant defense corporation mergers and commercial weapons exports to governments overseas; and the practice of making patients pay twice for drugs—first, as taxpayers subsidize the drugs’ development, and again, as patients, after the federal government gives monopolistic control over the chemical’s manufacture to a price-gouging drug company. Cutting Corporate Welfare sounds a wake-up call for those concerned about how we are being pick-pocketed by big business, and what we can do to stop it. |
Contents
THE CORPORATE WELFARE STATE | 35 |
GIVEAWAYS | 47 |
GOVERNMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT | 57 |
BAILOUTS | 69 |
CORPORATE TAX EXPENDITURES | 77 |
INSURANCE SCHEMES FORMAL AND DE FACTO | 83 |
GOVERNMENT SPONSORED ENTERPRISES | 95 |
EXPORT AND OVERSEAS MARKETING ASSISTANCE | 103 |
DEFENSE AND HIGHWAY PORK | 107 |
OTHER FORMS OF CORPORATE WELFARE | 111 |
CONCLUSION | 115 |
NOTES | 127 |
RESOURCE GUIDE | 135 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
1872 Mining Act agencies airwaves assets bailout banks Bayh-Dole Act beneficiaries benefits billion Bristol-Myers Bristol-Myers Squibb broadcasters Budget campaign Center Chrysler Citizens for Tax Committee competition Congressional consumers corporate tax corporate tax expenditure corporate wel corporate welfare corporate welfare programs cost DaimlerChrysler Defense democracy Department digital television dollars economic environmental ernment exclusive licensing export assistance Fannie and Freddie Fannie Mae federal government foreign fuel efficiency fund giveaway government sponsored enterprises GSEs investments land legislation liability cap lobby Marriott ment nuclear industry nuclear power patent payments Pentagon percent PNGV political porate welfare pork Price-Anderson Price-Anderson Act public interest Ralph Nader reform require research and development Revenue Senate spectrum sponsored enterprises stadium Street subsidies tax breaks tax expenditures Tax Justice Taxol tion too-big-to-fail transfer Treasury Trent Lott Washington Winona LaDuke