WHERE TO GET PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Myth: We have eliminated welfare, or largely cut it back, in favor of a free-enterprise economy.
Fact: Welfare is a cornerstone of the American economy: it props up our corporations.
If you're tired of hearing about how poor people are forever asking for handouts, why not discuss how rich people are always asking for--and getting--much larger ones? Consider a few choice items from Mark Zepezauer and Arthur Naiman's mind-boggling compendium, Take the Rich Off Welfare.
1. Military Waste and Fraud: $172 billion. Wait a minute: the military budget was only $265 billion a couple of years back; how can this be? Zepezauer and Naiman make the case that the budget is much higher. They cite the Center for Defense Information's figures for spending buried elsewhere-in the Department of Energy's production of fuel for nuclear weapons, in the VA, in the military portion of NASA's budget, and so on to suggest that the budget for 1996 (when the book was written) was actually $327 billion, a figure that has escalated every year since then. The CDI then adds another $167 billion for the interest paid on past military spending, making the figure $494 billion. Of that $494 billion, they cite estimates by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Lawrence Korb (a military planner under Reagan who is now with the Brookings Institute) and the Center for Defense Information (founded by retired generals and admirals), which average out to $155 billion a year to finance a still overwhelmingly powerful military. Subtracting that from the $327 billion and leaving out interest for past budgets, leaves military waste and fraud of $172 billion per year.
Fraud is so prevalent that "most military suppliers are--plain and simple--criminals," according to the authors. Among examples cited:
·Grumman paid the government $20 million to escape criminal liability for coercing subcontractors into making political contributions.
·Northrop was fined $17 million for falsifying test data about its cruise missiles and fighter jets.
·Teledyne paid $5 million in a civil settlement for false testing, plus $5 million for repairs.
On the waste front, the authors reveal everything from the small instances of the $640 toilet seat Lockheed billed our government for, to large instances, such as building new Trident submarines, even though they are likely to be eliminated under the next arms control agreement, START III.
2. The authors estimate that the current means of taxation to support Social Security are so regressive that it amounts to a handout to the rich of $53 billion a year. That's because any income over $62,700 is exempt from the tax. That means that if you earned $62,700, you would pay the same amount of social security tax as Bill Gates, though not the same proportion of your assets.
3. The capital-gains tax cut of 1993 helped shovel $37 billion a year into the hands of mostly wealthy Americans. Sure, more and more Americans own stocks and therefore benefit from this tax cut. But as Citizens for Tax Justice put it, "more than any other kind of income, capital gains are concentrated at the very top of the income scale." As Zepezauer and Naiman put it, "97% of the benefit from the 1993 capital gains tax cut went to the richest 1% of the population. But that's not enough for them--they want to pay nothing. Thus the 'flat tax' plans of Dick Armey and Steve Forbes exempt capital gains from taxation completely!" The authors point to interesting data to refute the oft-repeated claim that lower capital gains taxes mean more jobs. Capital gains tax increases correlate with greater employment and a stronger economy. The authors note that many factors influence the economy but point out that the equation of a lower capital gains tax = a better economy just isn't supported by the data.
These are but three of the more lucrative ways to transfer money to the rich. Others include the S&L bailout ($32 billion every year for 30 years), homeowners' tax breaks for the rich ($26 billion), agribusiness subsidies ($18 billion a year), and on and on.
What's the lesson here? Welfare is fine and plentiful--if you are rich.
To learn more about how to get your hands on all this money, click on <www.commoncouragepress.com/rich.html>.
--from A backbone of facts to stand up to spineless power, by Common Courage Press: <www.commoncouragepress.com>