By Tim Brown
Corporate welfare programs instituted by the Obama administration are costing American taxpayers billions of dollars and they are getting nothing in return, except the bill. According to the CATO Institute corporate welfare has cost taxpayers $100 billion this past year alone.
It gets worse though. While a huge percentage of the Obama $800 billion in stimulus went to failed “green energy” companies like Solyndra, now it seems to be spreading throughout various federal agencies.
According to Cato, the most spending on “corporate welfare” programs in the federal budget — more than $25 billion — went to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A majority of the department’s farm subsidies go to the largest farms, the report noted.
The Department of Energy is responsible for nearly $18 billion in corporate welfare in FY 2012.
Other programs to make the list: the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Development Block Grant program ($285 million); the Commerce Department’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program ($2.2 billion); attempts by Transportation Department policymakers to develop a high-speed rail network ($1.2 billion) and the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management ($1.4 billion) land-use programs.
Daily I find articles for Dr. Gary North at TeaPartyEconomist.com and I’m always running across wasteful government spending. Nowhere is it more evident than in the corporate welfare area. Billions are spent every year to prop up failing companies and businesses that can’t survive.
Sadly both presumptive nominees in this year’s elections are not without taint in this issue. Obama has given nearly a trillion dollars away in corporate welfare and intends to provide more, while the company Romney worked for received millions in government subsidies for companies they bought, which then were turned into profits for the company.
Understand, I’m all for capitalism, but true capitalism. I’m not for businesses profiting at the expense of the taxpayer. If they are investing their own money that is fine and dandy. But when they want to dip in the public treasury, that’s when they have crossed the line. It’s why I oppose stadiums and arenas built at taxpayer expense only to turn around and charge enormous prices for parking, tickets, food and other stuff to those same taxpayers.