Government Spends More on Corporate Welfare Subsidies than Social Welfare Programs

[Emit]

About $59 billion is spent on traditional social welfare programs. $92 billion is spent on corporate subsidies. So, the government spent 50% more on corporate welfare than it did on food stamps and housing assistance in 2006.

Before we look at the details, a heartfelt plea from the Save the CEO’s Charitable Trust:

There’s so much suffering in the world. It can all get pretty overwhelming sometimes. Consider, for a moment the sorrow in the eyes of a CEO who’s just found out that his end-of-year bonus is only going to be a paltry $2.3 million.

“It felt like a slap in the face. Imagine what it would feel like just before Christmas to find out that you’re going to be forced to scrape by on your standard $8.4 million compensation package alone. Imagine what is was like to have to look into my daughter’s face and tell her that I couldn’t afford to both buy her a dollar sign shaped island and hire someone to chew her food from now on, too. To put her in that situation of having to choose… She’s only a child for God’s sake.”

It doesn’t have to be this way. Thanks to federal subsidies from taxpayers like you, CEO’s like G. Allen Andreas of Archer Daniels Midland was able to take home almost $14 million in executive compensation last year. But he’s one of the lucky ones. There are still corporations out there that actually have to provide goods and services to their consumers in order to survive. They need your help.

For just $93 billion a year the federal government is able to provide a better life for these CEO’s and their families. That’s less than the cost of 240 million cups of coffee a day. Won’t you help a needy corporation today?

~snip~

The Big Picture

So now let’s look at the big picture. The final totals are $59 billion, 3 percent of the total federal budget, for regular welfare and $92 billion, 5 percent of the total federal budget, for corporations. So, the government spends roughly 50% more on corporate welfare than it does on these particular public assistance programs.


~snip~

http://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/corporate-welfare/corporate-welfare-statistics-vs-social-welfare-statistics/

[KansDem]

1. Ironic, isn't it?

Corporations, including banks and Wall Street, have become America's "Welfare Kings"

Socialize the risks,
Privatize the profits.

[Emit]

4. Thanks for this, KansDem ...

Socialize the risks,
Privatize the profits.

I heard this the other day- couldn't recall the context or where - and I was looking for the quote.

[PowerToThePeople]

2. 56% more. n/t

[BlueStreak]

3. And that doesn't include most of the government largesse that goes to corporations

It does not include the special deals the big players get on mineral rights, oil leases, and radio spectrum leases.

It does not include the protection we give Big Pharma, allowing them to charge Americans twice what their products are worth on the world stage.

It does not include the benefit of requiring everybody to buy health insurance from a handful of huge corporations.

It does not include all the military contracts for trillions of dollars of systems nobody needs.

And so on.

We p[ay for all of these things, one way or another.