End Corporate Welfare by WeNews
End Corporate Welfare by WeNews
America has a massive national deficit of nearly $16.9 trillion; the government continues to spend money it doesn't have. What's the answer to this dilemma, what specifically needs to be done? Many of our esteemed politicians say that, to alleviate the condition, government welfare must be ended. So with that premise in mind let's examine the pros and cons of this issue.
Those on the conservative side know exactly what's wrong and how to fix it. They absolutely despise all forms of welfare and cite the lazy people that they claim are the main beneficiaries; they would slash or even eliminate food stamps, unemployment benefits, Head Start, Aid to Dependent Children, and numerous other social programs that benefit the neediest of Americans. They say that these people receiving these forms of welfare need to get off their butts, get a job and support themselves just like you and I do.
These sociopaths in Congress love to beat up on less fortunate Americans because these are people who can't fight back. They block every attempt to pass job creation legislation and then look with disdain on those Americans who can't find jobs. Most of them earn $174,000 per year with the best health and pension benefits that the government can provide for them but they do everything in their power to make sure their fellow Americans must not obtain such benefits.
Now those on the other side of this issue say, wait just a minute, not so fast. There are millions upon millions of Americans who have lost their jobs through corporate outsourcing, that have been forced into the ranks of the unemployed, or have lost their homes to foreclosure. There are 50 million Americans on food stamps and 50 million living below the poverty line, an absolute national disgrace. To claim that most of these people are loafers and cheaters, don't want jobs, and want to just live off the government, is ludicrous.
Yes, America has a monumental welfare problem but one that includes an aspect that goes largely unnoticed and is rarely reported in the national media; one that has nothing whatsoever to do with helping Americans in need. That welfare problem that no one wants to talk about, especially the politicians in Washington D.C., is called Corporate Welfare.
Let's take an in-depth look at what's going on here. This article from the Mother Jones website reports that "Taxpayers for Common Sense estimates that oil companies will receive $78 billion in industry-specific and broader business subsidies from 2012 to 2017." Further, that "The US government subsidizes Big Oil - shorthand for ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, and ConocoPhillips, five of the biggest oil companies. And, while receiving these subsidies, the Big-Five corporations piled up profits of more than $1 trillion between 2001 and 2011."
What exactly are those big oil corporations doing with those mega-billions of dollars in government handouts? Are they working tirelessly to develop new sources of energy such as solar or wind power so that, in decades to come, America will be able to end its reliance on petroleum that has so badly polluted this planet and has caused countless wars and military conflicts around the world? Absolutely not; the development of these new sources of energy is not on their agenda and, in fact, they have no desire to do anything to initiate competition with OIL which continues to generate obscene profits. And, because of this, America will some day pay a terrible price for what these oil companies refuse to do.
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