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posted by admin
on Thursday November 15, 2001 @08:15 PM
from the salon.com dept.
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published Nov. 15, 2001 @ http://www.salon.com/
With Americans distracted by war, Republicans are trying to loot the public purse with a shameless "stimulus" plan.
By Joe Conason
At times like these, as Americans rediscover
the big bad world out there, we often talk about the
importance of convincing downtrodden peoples abroad of the
benefits of democracy. This is a fine idea, of course, so long
as we focus on the high-minded ideals of equality and liberty
embodied in the Constitution, and don't call too much
attention to the grubbier details of our system as it actually
functions. Let's not mention last year's presidential
election, for instance, when the guys who got fewer votes took
office because so many ballots went uncounted.
And let's try to avoid the subject of the influence of money
in democracy's homeland, too -- because our country's ruling
elite looks far too much like the larcenous oligarchies that
already rule those other benighted places. Whatever may have
changed in Washington since Sept. 11, the fealty of our
elected officials to moneyed interests remains the same. Only
the rhetoric has changed, with greed masquerading as
patriotism.
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The latest evidence has been compiled in a trenchant
investigation by three research organizations, which shows how
corporate donors have used the "economic stimulus"
legislation passed by Republican leaders in the House of
Representatives to pilfer the treasury. Public Campaign, a
nonprofit and nonpartisan group that advocates strong campaign
finance reform, joined with Citizens for Tax Justice and the
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy to produce the
30-page study of the relationship between corporate campaign
contributions and the tax breaks lavished on the most generous
donors.
The general tenor of their report, titled "Buy Now, Save
Later," will scarcely shock anyone who has paid attention
to the continuing degradation of American politics over the
past two decades. But it is nevertheless bracing to see
corporate and congressional names paired with specific dollar
figures (about $55 billion in tax breaks to 41 companies that
contributed $150 million to various influential pols -- and
that's only one of several case studies).
Among the grossest giveaways contemplated by Congress are
those involving an arcane element of the IRS code, known as
the Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT was enacted in 1986 to
make sure that the country's most profitable companies paid
something to keep government running, like ordinary citizens
are obliged to do every week. Until then, many of those
wealthy corporate citizens had escaped the income tax
altogether through various shelters and loopholes; more than a
few were reaping millions of dollars in "rebates."
These outfits are obviously managed by people who think only
suckers pay taxes, and they understandably have wanted to rid
themselves of the AMT for well over a decade.
Their faithful servants in the GOP sprang to this task as soon
as the Republicans took control of the House in 1995, but
their first effort to repeal the AMT was vetoed by President
Clinton. He signed a weaker version two years later, which
provided some additional loopholes but left the alternative
minimum tax on the books -- at least until now.
With a Republican administration in power and a nation
distracted by war and terror, the industries that would
benefit most from complete elimination of this progressive tax
clause saw a fresh opportunity. So did their friends in the
House leadership, who included not just a repeal of the AMT
but a refund of all the taxes paid by corporations because of
it. Americans who received those piddling $300 federal income
tax rebates last summer (which in many cases will have to be
paid back next spring) may be interested to know what kind of
rebates are about to be handed over to the country's biggest
corporations by Tom DeLay, Dick Armey and George W. Bush.
The top beneficiaries cited in the Public Campaign/Citizens
for Tax Justice study are 16 companies, including major energy
firms and airlines that have just gotten another taxpayer
bailout, that will receive upward of $7.4 billion under the
House legislation. Ford Motor Company would get a cool billion
bucks. IBM would get $1.4 billion. General Electric, owners of
NBC, would get $671 million. Bush's pals at Enron would get
$254 million. American Airlines would get $184 million.
Those "rebates" are only half the story, however.
The other half entails the $45 million vouchsafed by those
behemoths to their favorite politicians over the past 10
years. They have donated twice as much to Republicans as to
Democrats, and that doesn't include the donations made on
their behalf by lobbyists, accounting firms and other
affiliated practitioners of legal graft. Among the
best-greased is an obscure backbencher named Phil English, the
Pennsylvania Republican whose main distinction is his
unquenchable zeal to repeal the AMT.
The undoing of the Alternative Minimum Tax is merely one of
several outrageous provisions of the "stimulus" bill
that would be unimaginable without the corrupting influence of
special-interest money. Public Campaign argues that the only
meaningful way to reform the system is to remove private
contributions altogether, as Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and
Arizona have tried to do in state law. Such radical
measures seem distant indeed. The McCain-Feingold bill, whose
far less stringent reforms came close to passage earlier this
year, is now relegated to the fringes of congressional
concern. In a letter to the editor of the New York Times
published Oct. 30, Senator Mitch McConnell spoke for all the
bagmen of Capitol Hill when he gloated that campaign finance
reform "has dropped off the list [of priorities]
completely as the president, Congress and the country are
focusing on terrorism and the economy."
The spoils of war are obviously not found only on distant
battlefields. Subverting the people's house and looting the
public purse are much easier when true patriots are
looking the other way.
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