How Much?



Posted: Saturday, October 04, 2008

by
Articles and Answers.com

Whoever is president next year is going to need money if he is going to do anything at all. John McCain says his plan is moretax-cuts to get the economy moving again. Not likely. We've had eight years of endless, mindless Bush tax-cuts and changingthe name to McCain tax-cuts won't work any better. The Republicans are still in the same place as Rick Santorum (ex-senator from Pennsylvania defeated by Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA).

"Tax-cuts pay for themselves" were the famous last words of Santorum. No, they don't and they never did. Supply-sideeconomics doesn't work and never did. But we know that now, don't we?

So where is the money going to come from to do all the things needed and planned by the Democrats--things like improved education, roads, bridges, highways, health insurance and a host of others that the Republicans, somehow, never seem to get around to doing?

This may be the time to take a good look at Subsidies and Corporate Welfare and see just how much taxpayers are coughing up each year to keep our free enterprise economy afloat. We know about the $700 billion bailout just passed, but I would guess that's small potatoes compared to the amount spent on agriculture subsidies and insurance subsidies.

For example, how much of the Bush drug plan goes to insurance companies? How much more do drugs cost because Medicareis forbidden, by law, to negotiate prices for drugs?

When an individual gets assistance from the government, he's on welfare which "ended as we know it." It's time to end corporatewelfare to Big Bidness as we know it. It's paid for by tax-payers who can make better use of the money.

But, first of all, does anybody know how much it is?

New tax breaks:

Film and television productions (Sec. 502)

Wooden arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)

6-page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)

Tax extenders (extensions of previous tax breaks):

Virgin Island and Puerto Rican rum (Section 308)

American Samoa (Sec. 309)

Mine rescue teams (Sec. 310)

Mine safety equipment (Sec. 311)

Domestic production activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)

Indian tribes (Sec. 314, 315)

Railroads (Sec. 316)

Auto racing tracks (317)

District of Columbia (Sec. 322)

Wool research (Sec. 325)

Source: MSNBC
Richard E Walrath is a writer residing in central Ohio with his family. He is a former budget analyst and co-owner of the Articles and Answers news and information sites.

This Article has been viewed 221 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.