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Post by the Scribe on Aug 26, 2020 2:15:23 GMT
Republicans Blast Democrats As Socialists. Here's What Socialism Iswww.npr.org/2020/08/25/905895428/republicans-blast-democrats-as-socialists-heres-what-socialism-is August 25, 20203:20 PM ET BRIAN NAYLOR
Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Democratic ticket's vision for the United States was one of socialism. Susan Walsh/AP A viewer watching the Republican National Convention on Monday night could be forgiven for thinking that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were not the Democratic Party's presidential and vice presidential nominees but were leading a different ticket altogether.
"Biden, Harris and their socialist comrades will fundamentally change this nation," Trump campaign adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle warned.
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, asserted that Biden would be taking orders from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the four congresswomen known as the "Squad."
"Their vision for America is socialism," Haley said. "And we know that socialism has failed everywhere."
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said, "Democrats have chosen to go down the road to socialism."
The "S" word is a charge Republicans have leveled against Democrats for decades, says Thomas Alan Schwartz, a Vanderbilt University history and political science professor.
"Democrats have tended, through regulation and other ways, to be more empowering of the federal government and in regulating the economy than the Republicans," Schwartz says, "and this has been called socialism."
Schwartz says the term socialism actually refers to a political system in which the state is in charge of the economy and provides not only social welfare services such as health care, but where "all sorts of other things are in state control, including the large sections of the private economy."
In 1945, when President Harry Truman, a Democrat, first proposed a national health insurance program, which evolved to what we now know as Medicare, Republicans opposed it, arguing it was socialist. And earlier New Deal programs, including Social Security, were similarly labeled.
Now Republicans are trying to hang two Democratic proposals, the Green New Deal and "Medicare for All," on Biden, even though he supports neither, and has established a long political record as a moderate and pragmatist.
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And while Sanders and "Squad" members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib identify as Democratic Socialists, their vision is more aligned with Scandinavian nations such as Denmark and Sweden, where universal health care and a wide range of social benefits — and higher taxes — are the norm, but capitalism still prevails, rather than with countries such as Venezuela and Cuba, where the state does control major industries, and authoritarians rule.
Republicans level the socialist charge possibly in an effort to scare voters into opposing the Democratic ticket and supporting their candidate, but Schwartz says he doesn't think it's that frightening a label anymore.
"Clearly the ways in which socialist was a dirty word during the Cold War have declined considerably," he says. "The fact that Bernie Sanders could mount such a challenge and be so strong despite being a self-professed socialist, I think does show that socialism doesn't scare many American voters anymore." www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/25/stark-partisan-divisions-in-americans-views-of-socialism-capitalism/
Ironically, President Trump and Republicans in Congress have themselves blurred the lines between capitalism and socialism, passing the CARES Act to aid businesses and providing $600 payments to unemployed workers in the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has also opened federal coffers to rescue farmers who have been hurt by his trade disputes with China and other nations.
"President Trump," Schwartz says, "is very fond of using the government and being willing to spend money and do things that might be, in another context, considered socialist."
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Post by the Scribe on Aug 26, 2020 20:08:00 GMT
IN ONE YEAR THE AVERAGE AMERICAN TAXPAYER MAKING $50000 A YEAR PAYS $36 TOWARDS FOOD STAMPS, $6 FOR OTHER SAFETY NET PROGRAMS, $870 FOR CORPORATE SUBSIDIES, $1600 TO OFFSET CORPORATE TAX LOOPHOLES AND $1231 TO OFFSET LOSSES FROM CORPORATE OVERSEAS TAX HAVENS.
WE CAN AFFORD TO HELP THE POOR, NOT CORPORATE WELFARE. (OC OCCUPY DEMOCRATS SOURCES THE TAX FOUNDATION CITIZENS FOR TAX JUSTICE)
CORPORATE AMERICA HAS THE BIGGEST AND MOST EXTENSIVELY SUBSIDIZED WELFARE PROGRAM GOING FOR THEM AND THIS IS EXPOSED VERY INFREQUENTLY. LET'S TAKE A HOLD OF THE REAL NARRATIVE TO COUNTER-ACT THE DISTORTED AND LOPSIDED ONE ABOUT WELFARE CHEATS - CORPORATE WELFARE
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Post by the Scribe on Aug 28, 2020 1:38:30 GMT
This is HYPOCRISY considering RepubliCONS are the biggest SOCIALISTS in history. The difference is the Democrats and Liberals believe there should be a government commons to benefit average American people. RepubliCONServatives believe in Corporate and socialism for the 1% wealthiest of Americans. They are still upset that Bernie Sanders didn't get the nomination by the Democrats because that is what they had planned on. Republican convention is all about saving the U.S. from 'socialism' www.yahoo.com/news/republican-convention-is-all-about-saving-the-us-from-socialism-024152964.html Caitlin Dickson Reporter Yahoo NewsAugust 26, 2020, 7:41 PM MST Scroll back up to restore default view.
The official theme of the 2020 Republican National Convention may be "Honoring the Great American Story," but the not-so-subtle narrative woven throughout many of the primetime speeches this week sought to depict a dystopian version of reality in which Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is running on a radical socialist agenda.
In fact, the longtime senator and former vice president has a well-established record as a moderate Democrat and has declined to endorse the Green New Deal and Medicare for All proposals backed by the more left-wing members of his party. www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905895428/republicans-blast-democrats-as-socialists-heres-what-socialism-is
Yet, according to the narrative promoted throughout the Republican National Convention this week, “Democrats have chosen to go down the road to socialism,” as Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel declared.
During the first night alone, primetime speakers made at least 14 references to “socialism” or “socialists,” based on a review of their prepared remarks, which also included 15 mentions of the term “radical,” as in “Biden’s radical left-wing policies,” and President Trump’s efforts to “overcome the agenda of the radical left.” www.yahoo.com/news/rnc-live-republican-national-convention-night-1-nikki-haley-donald-trump-jr-tim-scott-mccloskeys-200035587.html
Throughout the convention, many of the speakers derided the “radical left” and issued dire warnings against Biden’s alleged socialist agenda. But to really drive the point home, each night featured a speaker who offered a personal experience of life in a socialist or communist country as a cautionary tale for Americans.
On Monday night, Florida businessman Maximo Alvarez, who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor from Cuba in 1961, compared demands for police reform from progressive movements like Black Lives Matter to the promises of Fidel Castro’s communist revolution.
“I’m speaking to you today because I’ve seen people like this before. I’ve seen movements like this before. I’ve seen ideas like this before, and I’m here to tell you, we cannot let them take over our country,” said Alvarez, choking back tears. “When I watch the news in Seattle and Chicago and Portland, when I see history being rewritten, when I hear the promises — I hear echoes of a former life I never wanted to hear again.”
Similar sentiments were expressed on Tuesday night by Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, the daughter of Cuban immigrants. For her parents, she said, “the difficult decision to flee communist Cuba came when the Castro regime abolished religious freedom.” www.yahoo.com/news/rnc-live-republican-national-convention-night-2-melania-trump-tiffany-eric-pompeo-sandmann-230031746.html
“The fabric of our nation is in peril,” Nuñez warned, claiming that “Daily, the radical left systematically chisels away at the freedoms we cherish. They peddle dangerous ideologies, cower to global progressives, and normalize socialism to dismantle our Constitution.”
“Let me assure you, socialism doesn’t offer opportunity,” she said. “Socialism deprives. It is a falsehood that feigns promises for its masses and consistently yields only misery.”
Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng speaks during the Republican National Convention on Wednesday. (via Reuters TV) www.yahoo.com/news/rnc-live-republican-national-convention-night-3-kellyanne-conway-mike-pence-230002274.html
On Wednesday night, Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng echoed the warnings about the dangers of communism while also reiterating other common themes of the convention: blaming China for the COVID-19 pandemic and portraying President Trump as the rare world leader willing to stand up to China’s authoritarianism.
“The Chinese Communist Party is an enemy of humanity,” said Guangcheng, explaining how he fled government persecution in China after speaking out about the country’s one-child policy. “It is terrorizing its own people and it is threatening the well-being of the world.”
“The coronavirus pandemic, originating in China — and covered up by the [Chinese Communist Party] — has caused mass death and social upheaval around the world. In the same way, the virus of the CCP is threatening the people of the world,” Guangcheng said. “The policy of appeasement of former administrations — including Obama and Biden — has allowed the CCP to infiltrate and corrode different aspects of the global community.”
Burgess Owens, a former NFL player running for Congress in Utah, even retroactively cast the Second World War as a fight against, yes, socialism.
“Mobs torch our cities while popular members of Congress promote the same socialism my father fought against in World War II,” he said on Wednesday night.
The only officially socialist nation in the world during World War II was the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), which was an ally of the United States. Germany was governed by the Nazi Party, formally the National Socialist German Workers' Party, but the regime is typically described as fascist, a far-right ideology.
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 22, 2021 12:06:10 GMT
Jamie Dimon Is Fine with Corporate Socialism
Bernie Sanders 448K subscribers Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, says socialism will lead to an "eroding society." That's funny. I didn't hear him complain about corporate socialism when his bank got a $416 billion bailout from American taxpayers.
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Post by the Scribe on Oct 17, 2021 13:12:40 GMT
The Real Socialism in America is Not What You Think | Robert Reich 46,770 viewsAug 25, 2021
Robert Reich 316K subscribers
Ever notice how nobody asks “how are you going to pay for it” when we give massive government subsidies to Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Tech, and defense contractors?
We have socialism for the super-rich, merciless capitalism for the rest.
Watch More: How Corporate Welfare Hurts You ►►
#socialism #military #amazon
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 17, 2021 2:11:50 GMT
Corporate Welfare Lives on and On www.cato.org/commentary/corporate-welfare-lives From farm subsidies to the Export‐Import Bank, special interest feeding frenzies are still the norm throughout government. AUGUST 29, 2018 • COMMENTARY By Doug Bandow This article appeared in The American Conservative on August 29, 2018. TOP Congress created the usual special interest frenzy with its latest iteration of the farm bill. Agricultural subsidies are one of the most important examples of corporate welfare—money handed out to businesses based on political connections. The legislation suffered a surprise defeat in the House, being viewed as too stingy. But it is certain to return.
Fiscal responsibility is out of fashion. The latest federal budget, drafted by a Republican president and Republican‐controlled Congress, blew through the loose limits established under Democratic President Barack Obama. The result is trillion‐dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.
Spending matters. So does the kind of spending. Any amount of corporate welfare is too much.
From farm subsidies to the Export‐Import Bank, special interest feeding frenzies are still the norm throughout government.
Business plays a vital role in a free market. People should be able to invest and innovate, taking risks while accepting losses. In real capitalism there are no guaranteed profits. But corporate welfare gives the well‐connected protection from many of the normal risks of business.
Business subsidies undermine both capitalism and democracy. Allowing politicians to channel economic resources toward their preferred ends distorts investment and trade. Moreover, turning government into an engine of illicit profit encourages what economists call rent‐seeking. Well‐organized special interests usually triumph over the broader public and national interest.
Explained Mercatus scholar Tad DeHaven, then a budget analyst at the Cato Institute: “Corporate welfare often subsidizes failing and mismanaged businesses and induces firms to spend more time on lobbying rather than on making better products. Instead of correcting market failures, federal subsidies misallocate resources and introduce government failures into the marketplace.”
While corporate welfare suggests money for big business, firm size is irrelevant. There is no substantive difference between, say, the Small Business Administration and the Export‐Import Bank. Both turn capitalism into a rigged game of Monopoly.
Aid comes in many forms. There is spending, typically in grants, loans, and loan guarantees; limits on competitors, such as tariffs and quotas; tax preferences, attached to broader tax bills to benefit individual companies and industries. All help ensure business profits.
Agriculture in particular has spawned a gaggle of sometimes bizarre subsidies. Payments, loans, crop insurance, import quotas, and more underwrite farmers. When these distort the marketplace, further efforts are concocted to address those dislocations. A dairy program created milk surpluses, which in turn encouraged state price fixing that generated massive cheese stockpiles, in turn triggering giveaways to the poor. The federal government killed off cows even as it continued to subsidize milk.
Money also goes to agricultural enterprises through the Rural Business‐Cooperative Service, which supports “business development.” Through it, observed the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards, Washington subsidizes “utilities, housing developers, and a vast range of other businesses, such as auto shops, tractor companies, clam producers, carwashes, and pharmaceutical firms.” The defeated farm bill even included $65 million in special health care subsidies for agricultural associations. Ironically farm households enjoy higher median income and wealth than non‐farm households.
The Market Access Program subsidizes agricultural exports. So do the Emerging Markets Program and Foreign Market Development Program. Other programs support general trade and investment. For instance, the Export‐Import Bank is known as Boeing’s Bank. It provides cheap credit for foreign buyers of American products. Ironically this gives foreign firms, such as airlines that purchase Boeing airplanes, an advantage over U.S. carriers, which must pay full fare. Ex-Im’s biggest beneficiary in recent years has been China, especially its state‐owned firms.
Contrary to its claims, Ex‐Im is not vital for American exports: it backs fewer than 2 percent of them. Around 10 companies benefit from roughly two thirds of the organization’s largesse. Ex‐Im likes to say it makes money. But the real cost is channeling economic resources to the politically favored.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation provides another carefully camouflaged subsidy. OPIC underwrites U.S. investment—recipients have ranged from Papa John’s Pizza to the Ritz-Carlton—in potentially unstable nations. If the project pays off, investors win. If not, the rest of us lose. OPIC’s real cost includes channeling business investment into protected regions and industries. American businesses hoping to make money in foreign markets should not expect American taxpayers to guarantee those profits.
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At the other end of the commercial spectrum is the Small Business Administration. Smaller firms are a vital part of the American economy and play an important cultural, community, and family role. Yet small businesses are not an underserved market. There is no dearth of, say, liquor stores, bakeries, or antique shops. (Personally, I would love to see an antique shop on every street corner.) SBA is a response to a political opportunity, not an economic need.
Much corporate welfare is disguised in broader terms. The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration subsidizes “development” in “distressed communities,” meaning the agency underwrites business, with dubious results. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grants do much the same. So does the Appalachian Regional Commission. Cato’s Chris Edwards complained that “these are pork‐barrel handouts, not proper federal activities.” There are some 180 “economic development” programs of one sort or another.
The Rural Utilities Service (once the Rural Electrification Administration) continues, never mind that rural America got electricity decades ago. Today RUS underwrites service in wealthy resort areas and has expanded into broadband internet and even television service. The Federal Communications Commission has several programs to subsidize phone service. The Commerce Department includes the Minority Business Development Agency, which underwrites companies that qualify as minority‐owned.
The Bureau of Land Management (mis)manages federal lands, subsidizing use of rangeland by ranchers, for instance. There are federal subsidies to develop, finance, and promote fisheries. There are incentives for airline companies to serve small markets. Foreign Military Financing is presented as a national defense measure, but in most cases the chief beneficiaries are arms makers. There is money to develop high‐speed rail and aid shipyards, while the Jones Act imposes huge costs on consumers to preserve expensive U.S. merchantmen.
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There are many housing subsidies, most notably mortgage support and tax preferences, though the latter were trimmed by last year’s tax bill. Federal Reserve monetary policy also is a massive subsidy for housing industry enterprises and other asset‐based businesses. The Trump administration is pushing subsidies for what the president calls “beautiful” coal power plants.
Federal research and development outlays also offer bountiful benefit to business. The more basic the R&D, the better the argument that the public interest is being served. But even there, warned DeHaven, “the government’s basic research can be unproductive and pork‐barrel in nature.” The closer to commercialization, the more the expenditures are essentially corporate welfare. Alas, Uncle Sam has a hideous record of choosing winners and losers. Most often he chooses the politically influential, which can mean picking losers.
That certainly was the case in the area of “green” energy, for instance. The Obama administration funneled $535 million worth of loan guarantees to Solyndra, which President Barack Obama called an “engine of economic growth.” The company filed for bankruptcy in 2011 after spending $1.8 million on its Washington lobbyists. The Washington Post later reported that $3.9 billion in Energy Department grants and financing flowed to 21 companies backed by firms connected to five Obama administration staffers and advisers.
The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program provides $25 billion in loans for development of cars powered by alternative fuels. Tesla is a major beneficiary. Some players enjoy multiple benefits. DeHaven pointed to Enron, which “received billions of dollars in aid for its projects from the Export‐Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the U.S. Maritime Administration, and other agencies.” When the firm collapsed taxpayers were stuck with several bills.
Although most public attention falls on direct expenditures, trade “protection” is no less a form of corporate welfare. Both tariffs and quotas allow domestic manufacturers to charge more for their products. Unfortunately, the cost of this form of corporate welfare is hidden from the public. Tariffs and other fees alone come to around $40 billion a year. Estimating the cost of quotas and other non‐financial restrictions is much harder.
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Tax preferences are another means of corporate welfare. Buried in the tax code, they often are difficult to identify. Measures that affect only one firm or industry, in contrast to those with general economic impact, should be treated as subsidies. Some measures are both, such as the mortgage interest deduction.
The Tax Foundation once calculated that “special tax provisions” cost more than $100 billion annually in lost revenue. Toss in just the mortgage interest deduction and the total jumps dramatically. Although last year’s tax bill covered important policy issues, it also incorporated more than a few preferences called “tax extenders.”
States and localities also offer subsidies, many through grants, free property, and tax preferences to attract businesses to a particular area. The New York Timespointed to the case of General Motors: “For years, mayors and governors anxious about local jobs had agreed to G.M.’s demands for cash rewards, free buildings, worker training and lucrative tax breaks.” Estimates of these costs run between $50 billion and $80 billion.
With the annual federal deficit again approaching $1 trillion, ending corporate welfare alone would not restore fiscal sanity in Washington. But it would be a good down payment. Killing corporate welfare also would help answer the question: does the system operate only for the influential and elite? Ending welfare for profit‐making companies should be a starting point for any effort to balance the budget.
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 17, 2021 6:54:05 GMT
Ten Examples of Welfare for the Rich and Corporations www.huffpost.com/entry/ten-examples-of-welfare-for-the-rich-and-corporations_b_4589188
Here are the top 10 examples of corporate welfare and welfare for the rich. There are actually thousands of tax breaks and subsidies for the rich and corporations provided by federal, state and local governments, but these 10 will give a taste. By Bill Quigley, Contributor Law Professor, Loyola University New Orleans 01/14/2014 08:08pm EST | Updated March 16, 2014
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Here are the top 10 examples of corporate welfare and welfare for the rich. There are actually thousands of tax breaks and subsidies for the rich and corporations provided by federal, state and local governments, but these 10 will give a taste.
1. State and local subsidies to corporations: An excellent New York Times study by Louise Story calculated that state and local government provide at least $80 billion in subsidies to corporations. Over 48 big corporations received over $100 million each. GM was the biggest, at a total of $1.7 billion extracted from 16 different states, but Shell, Ford and Chrysler all received over $1 billion each. Amazon, Microsoft, Prudential, Boeing and casino companies in Colorado and New Jersey received well over $200 million each. www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/us/how-local-taxpayers-bankroll-corporations.html?_r=0 www.huffpost.com/impact/topic/amazon
2. Direct federal subsidies to corporations: The Cato Institute estimates that federal subsidies to corporations cost taxpayers almost $100 billion every year. www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/corporate-welfare-federal-budget
3. Federal tax breaks for corporations: The tax code gives corporations special tax breaks that have reduced what is supposed to be a 35-percent tax rate to an actual tax rate of 13 percent, saving these corporations an additional $200 billion annually, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. www.gao.gov/assets/660/654957.pdf
4. Federal tax breaks for wealthy hedge fund managers: Special tax breaks for hedge fund managers allow them to pay only a 15-percent rate while the people they earned the money for usually pay a 35-percent rate. This is the break where the multimillionaire manager pays less of a percentage in taxes than her secretary. The National Priorities Project estimates this costs taxpayers $83 billion annually, and 68 percent of those who receive this special tax break earn more than $462,500 per year (the top 1 percent of earners). nationalpriorities.org/en/blog/2013/11/04/tax-break-hedge-fund-managers
5. Subsidies to the fast food industry: Research by the University of Illinois and UC Berkeley documents that taxpayers pay about $243 billion each year in indirect subsidies to the fast food industry because they pay wages so low that taxpayers must put up $243 billion to pay for public benefits for their workers. laborcenter.berkeley.edu/publiccosts/fast_food_poverty_wages.pdf
6. Mortgage deduction: The home mortgage deduction, which costs taxpayers $70 billion per year, is a huge subsidy to the real estate, banking and construction industries. The Center of Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that 77 percent of the benefit goes to homeowners with incomes over $100,000 per year. www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3948
7. The billions above do not even count the government bailout of Wall Street, while all parties have done their utmost to tell the public that they did not need it, that they paid it back, or that it was a great investment. The Atlantic Monthly estimates that $7.6 trillion was made available by the Federal Reserve to banks, financial firms and investors. The Cato Institute estimates (using government figures) the final costs at $32 to $68 billion, not including the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which alone cost more than $180 billion. cdn.theatlantic.com/static/coma/images/issues/200905/fed-map.gif www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/corporate-welfare-federal-budget
8. Each major piece of legislation contains new welfare for the rich and corporations. The Boston Globe analyzed the emergency tax legislation passed by Congress in early 2013 and found it contained 43 business and energy tax breaks, together worth $67 billion. www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/03/16/corporations-record-huge-returns-from-tax-lobbying-gridlock-congress-stalls-reform/omgZvDPa37DNlSqi0G95YK/story.html
9. Huge corporations that engage in criminal or other wrongful activities protect their leaders from being prosecuted by paying huge fees or fines to the government. You and I would be prosecuted. These corporations protect their bosses by paying off the government. For example, Reuters reported that JPMorgan Chase, which made a preliminary $13-billion mortgage settlement with the U.S. government, is allowed to write off a majority of the deal as tax deductible, saving the corporation $4 billion. www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/22/us-jpmorgan-penalties-idUSBRE99L19720131022
10. There are thousands of smaller special breaks for corporations and businesses out there. There is a special subsidy for corporate jets, which cost taxpayers $3 billion a year. The tax deduction for second homes costs $8 billion a year. Fifty billionaires received taxpayer-funded farm subsidies in the past 20 years. www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/us/politics/08lobby.html?_r=0 www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-23/second-home-deduction-future-depends-on-congress-using-it.html www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/billionaires-received-us-farm-subsidies-report-finds.html?_r=0
If you want to look at the welfare for the rich and corporations, start with the federal Internal Revenue Code. That is the King James Bible of welfare for the rich and corporations. Special breaks in the tax code are the reason that there are thousands of lobbyists in the halls of Congress, hundreds of lobbyists around each state legislature and tens of thousands of tax lawyers all over the country.
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