Welfare Update

looking to the RightLet's get our house in order. We, as conservative, look askew at the sometimes overly liberal aspects of our modern American welfare system. The huge cost of the Iraq debacle has largely pushed social spending off the viewing screen. Indeed, welfare costs and waste shiver in a dark closet, dwarfed by this administration's mismanagement of the budget. That said, I want to talk about serious, big-time welfare. I want fellow conservatives to be alarmed that one class of individual in our society (corporations) is treated as an indigent minority, receiving billions in government support and protection even when hugely profitable.

 

The Real Point

Certainly, those corporations feeding at the hog trough in Iraq are good examples, but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about all the special things that Republicans have done recently while masquerading as conservatives to support big corporations at the expense of small business and taxpayers. For example, the Bush White House's proposal to impose a $.70 per gallon tax on aviation fuel in order to keep small aviation businesses from competing with the airlines. Bush lost that battle when a small number of Republicans in Congress refused to vote for a tax increase, but the Bush White House came back with user fees aimed at those same small businesses. Do real conservatives support stifling small business efforts in order to provide special privileges to big corporations? I hope not.

 Unable to stop here, I have to go to some other examples that should be disturbing to true conservatives. I am familiar with the case of a man injured in a very serious accident. It was pretty clear that the other party was at fault and willfully took actions that were the direct cause the accident. The injured party was no longer working and, therefore, no longer a member of the HMO he had belonged to at the time of the accident. He reasonably settled for no big damages, just enough money to cover the future surgery that he would need to regain some portion of the mobility he had once enjoyed. It all seemed reasonable, BUT, the HMO gets reimbursed for all of its expenses even though the settlement didn't provide any money for damages, only for the new surgery that the HMO would not cover. Now, you would think that he would battle it out in court with the HMO arguing that it insured him and doesn't have any right to take any future money that comes from a third party to pay for future (uncovered) surgery, but no. He doesn't get the surgery because the law, passed to protect the profits of insurance companies, some of the most profitable companies in the world, puts the profits ahead of the rights of the individual who is injured. The insurance company gets to keep the premiums and takes the money that was given to the injured party for future surgery as well. The insurance company doesn't have to pay a dime for prior injuries or future medical treatment. It just keeps the profits. The victim here, gets nothing. The insurance company, protected by the government, gets rich.

 Least you think that is unusual, it happens all the time. One of the worst overall examples is the protection that big corporations get from lawsuits for retirement and insurance claims. Republicans, pretending to be conservatives, have passed laws that allow big corporations to simply decide to not pay promised retirement benefits or insurance benefits. How does the law protect them? It simply forbids anyone from suing them for more than the contributions. So, a person who pay premiums for 30 years into a corporate insurance plan and subsequently is not paid for a major medical condition can only sue for the premiums paid. The corporations are protected by the government from the normal rights of ordinary people to sue to uphold a contract.

 

The Culture of Corporate Welfare

Sample Image Democrats and Republicans in politics have come to treat the big corporation as king -- well, as queen. On one hand, big corporate business has been an important element in the success of the US economy, providing jobs and bringing money into the country through exports. But, corporate jobs have largely gone to foreign countries that don't even like us. We hardly export anything significant anymore. What we do, is put big corporations on a pedestal, pointing out that they need to be protected from those pesky small businesses, employees, customers and the general public. As if that is not enough, politicians make sure they get a chunk of our tax money to keep their profits high. The Republican Party was once the protector of business. That included small businesses, medium businesses and big corporations alike. Of course, the Republican Party was once made up of mostly conservatives. Today, the Republican Party, with a fair amount of help from the Democrats, hold only the big corporations in high esteem. They give a little lip service to small business, riding on the old name, but they continue to increase taxes on small business, calling them user fees as they continue to protect the profits of big corporations from the encroachment of small businesses.

 

How and Why Do They Do That?

 It's always about power and money, isn't it? So it is with big corporations. One favor to a big corporation can mean millions in campaign contributions. Big corporations are sophisticated and politically wise. They track who befriends them and they reward those politicians with a powerful voice and big dollars. They buy more favors.  Small businesses are mostly unsophisticated by comparison. It's like big corporations use expensive consultants to sift through mountains of data to identify their allies in politics while small businesses listen to talk radio. O. K. stop the emails! I don't really mean small businesses are stupid. I do mean they don't have the resources to track every politician who is helping them (or not). We, as conservatives, whether running small businesses or not, have long held the belief that the Republican Party was on our side from a business standpoint. We believe in competitive markets and that businesses succeed or fail based on their competitive maneuvering. We also have long held that businesses don't need much government interference, either controlling them or handing them money. That has changed and it has changed before our eyes and it has become very much out of control.

  Big corporations are paying off politicians like never before and politicians are paying them back by protecting them from the natural forces of a market driven economy. By passing laws that ensure that corporations can't be held responsible for their contracts and by passing laws that ensure big corporate profits at the expense of small businesses, politicians (both Republicans and Democrats) ensure their own political successes. Whether it's the insurance industry, music industry, big oil, banking or movies, our politicians put the interests of these big corporations first. Sometimes, it is for personal financial profit as when Cheney protects Halliburton and the oil companies, sometimes it's for political payback and the political future. Whatever the case, Americans lose when the government moves in to give one set of citizens special rights at the cost of the rest of us and, it's always at the cost of the rights of the rest of us. It's like affirmative action for big corporations. And they call themselves Conservatives!

 

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To take from government is to take from the people. - Jenny Jerrome