Corporate Welfare Information Center
http://www.corporations.org/welfare/--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The $150 billion for corporate subsidies and tax benefits eclipses the annual budget deficit of $130 billion. It's more than the $145 billion paid out annually for the core programs of the social welfare state: Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), student aid, housing, food and nutrition, and all direct public assistance (excluding Social Security and medical care)."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"After World War II, the nation's tax bill was roughly split between corporations and individuals. But after years of changes in the federal tax code and international economy, the corporate share of taxes has declined to a fourth the amount individuals pay, according to the US Office of Management and Budget." --Boston Globe series on Corporate Welfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporate Welfare Basics
RACHEL's Environment & Health Weekly newsletters:
#422: Corporate Welfare
#396: Unfunded Mandates (tax breaks)
Corporate Welfare Examples
Common Cause Reports:
Return on Investment: The Hidden Story of Soft Money, Corporate Welfare and the 1997 Budget & Tax Deal
Corporate Welfare Issues Page
Green Scissors Campaign - Environmentally-Damaging Corporate Welfare
Friends of the Earth -- "Economics for the Earth" Reports:
Green Scissors 2000
Green Scissors '99 - $51 Billion in anti-environmental corporate pork
Green Scissors '98 - $49 Billion in anti-environmental corporate pork
Green Scissors '97 - $36 Billion in anti-environmental corporate pork
Green Scissors '96 - $38.8 Billion in anti-environmental corporate pork
Green Scissors report ('95)
(34 choice examples of environmentally damaging corporate welfare projects)
Dirty Little Secrets report
(15 of the most unfair and environmentally damaging tax breaks)
Road to Ruin Report
($10 Billion Worth of harmful, unneeded and environmentally damaging new highway projects)
Taxpayers for Common $ense -- Publications/Reports
The Waste Basket -- a weekly bulletin of wasteful government spending
Road to Ruin II (even more pork barrel highways)
Fossil Fuel Subsidy Factsheet
Blank Check: The Cost to U.S. Taxpayers of Creating a New "Takings" Entitlement
Citizens for Tax Justice -- Giveaways to the Rich and Corporations
The Hidden Entitlements: Tax Loopholes from A to Z
Citizens for Leaders with Ethics and Accountability Now! (CLEAN)
Sports Stadiums
HUD Abuses
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporate Welfare Mailing lists
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Resources on Corporate Welfare
Take the Rich Off Welfare, Odonian Press, Zepezauer and Naiman.
191 pages; costs $9.00; available by calling 1-800-732-5786
A couple of the fine statistics covered are:
"If you cut 26 percent of the welfare now given to the rich you have instantly balanced the budget."
"If you cut out weathfare, you could pay off the national debt in 11 years."
Sample Legislation to Reform Corparate Welfare
Getting Business Off The Public Dole: State and Local Model Laws to Curb Corporate Welfare Abuse
An Act To End Business Welfare Abuse: Proposed State Legislation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reports, Articles and Testimony on Corporate Welfare
Essential Information (Ralph Nader) Press Releases on Corporate Welfare
Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank)
Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study In Corporate Welfare
Cato Handbook for Congress: Corporate Welfare
How Corporate Welfare Won: Clinton and Congress Fail to Eliminate Business Subsidies - 1997 Budget
white paper and its summary
Policy Analysis on 1996 Budget and its summary
Ending Corporate Welfare As We Know It - 1995 Policy Analysis
Testimony Before Congress:
The Advanced Technology Program And Other Corporate Subsidies (testimony before the Senate Subcommittee On Government Management)
The Advanced Technology Program (testimony before the House Subcommittee on Technology Committee on Science)
Fiscal Year 1998 Budget Authorization for DOE, EPA R&D, and NOAA (Testimony Before the House Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment)
Funding at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Technology)
Environmental Working Group Reports on Agriculture Subsidies:
The Cash Croppers: The Top Two Percent Of America's Farm Subsidy Recipients 1985-1994
City Slickers: Farm Subsidy Recipients In America's Biggest Cities
Faking Takings: Farm Subsidies and Private Property in Perspective
"Freedom to Farm": An Analysis of Payments To Large Agribusiness Operations Big City Residents and the USDA Bureaucracy
Fox in the Henhouse: Cash, Crime & Conflict of Interest in Federal Farm Subsidy Programs
Common Cause's Position on Corporate Welfare
Bye-bye corporate tax revenues (1999 CSM article)
Boston Globe's Series on Corporate Welfare:
July 7, 1996: Helping Companies Grab All They Can Get
July 7, 1996: The $150 Billion `Welfare' Recipients: U.S. Corporations
July 8, 1996: Tax code gives companies a lift
July 9, 1996: Business' clout keeps the government breaks coming
Philadelphia Inquirer's Series on Corporate Welfare:
June 4, 1995: How Billions in Taxes Failed to Create Jobs
June 5, 1995: The Price of Keeping Labs Busy
June 6, 1995: His Biggest Competitor? The U.S. Government
June 7, 1995: Plans To Save Textile Jobs: A Wash
June 8, 1995: High-Tech House That Clout Built
June 9, 1995: A Successful Program, or Millions Down the Drain?
June 10, 1995: The Perils of Living Grant to Grant
The more corporate welfare received, the more layoffs...
This is a list of the 8 corporate welfare recipients that were listed in the first article of the Inquirer series, comparing corporate welfare received to the number of people layed off in that time (1990-1994).
Welfare recieved Employment
GM $110,600,000 -104,000
IBM 58,000,000 -100,000
AT&T 35,000,000 -1,077 * #
GE 25,400,000 -80,000
Amoco 23,600,000 -8,300 *
DuPont 15,200,000 -29,961
Motorola 15,100,000 +9,600 *
Citicorp 9,600,000 -15,700
* exceptions to the trend
# AT&T layed off 40,000 people shortly after this accounting
see also: Tax Subsidies Reward Corporate Downsizers (Citizens for Tax Justice report)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles and letters to the editor about Corporate Welfare:
The Real Welfare Cheats: Corporate America
The Other "Welfare Queens"
Now Is Not the Time To Increase Corporate Welfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporate Welfare Mailing Lists
There are 2 national email mailing lists (listserves) that deal with corporate welfare issues.
OUCH! - newsletter of Public Campaign (sign up here)
The Waste Basket - A weekly bulletin of wasteful government spending from the Taxpayers for Common $ense.
Also, Essential Information (a Ralph Nader group) used to run a low volume announcement list on corporate welfare. The archives are here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return to the Corporate Accountability Project
Last modified: 18 August 2002
http://www.corporations.org/welfare/