The Smell of Corporate Welfare

12:01 am EST January 25th, 2006 | Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Don’t you love it when big business lays off thousands of workers and gets a huge wet kiss in the form of tax breaks? You bet

Here was Ford Motor Co. announcing yesterday that it had cut 10,000 jobs last year and that it will cut up to 30,000 more. But shedding jobs at muscle-car acceleration rates didn’t stop Ford from pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars courtesy of the American Jobs Creation Act.

No, I’m not making this up. Right there, on page 2 of one of its news releases yesterday, Ford said that “repatriation of foreign earnings pursuant to the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 resulted in a permanent tax savings of about $250 million.”

The “American Jobs Creation Act” passed the House with 207 Yeas from Republicans, and 124 Nays from Democrats.

Topic: Economics

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10 Responses to “The Smell of Corporate Welfare”

Semanticleo says:

January 25, 2006 at 1:01 am

Well, I mean if you can’t juggle the books what’s the point of being in
business?

You have to remember that a back door need be left open for
bookkeeping creativity after Sarbanes/Oxley. A lesson had to be
learned from Enron, and this was it.
VRWC drone says:

January 25, 2006 at 1:01 am

Sounds like stupid legislation to me.

I noted from the link that 73 Democrats voted “Yea” on this thing. I assume that condemnation for these fellow big-business suckups will be forthcoming?
VRWC drone says:

January 25, 2006 at 2:01 am

Holy crap, we’re in agreement. I gotta go make a note of this.
Oliver Willis says:

January 25, 2006 at 2:01 am

Absolutely, anyone who voted for this was making a bad, anti-American vote.
Dugger says:

January 25, 2006 at 7:01 am

So-called corporate welfare is done by both sides of the aisle and its one of those issues that Congress is extremely hypocritical about: “Your state doesn’t need it. Its essential for jobs in my state.” I suspect Ford is in the process of surviving, witness GMs sickness. Lets not forget, since OW threw in the political angle, that Dems bailed out Chrysler earlier (note my first point).

Dugger, Home of cut-rate semi-pallindomes: A man, a plan, a canal, Suez.”
qkslvr_wolf says:

January 25, 2006 at 8:01 am

How exactly have dems been the one to bail anyone out within the last decade? Not that I’m arguing that the dem aren’t just as ridiculously in the pocket of corporations, by and large they are, but the dems haven’t been able to do anything on their own since ’94. Anything they claim at least gets a “bipartisan” stamp on it, since the dems haven’t been in control of congress.
Dugger says:

January 25, 2006 at 10:01 am

Quickie,

I referred to the Chrysler bail out (the last and only auto bail out). You inserted artifical ‘last decade’. If you look it up, the Chrysler bail out was by a Democratic congress with a Democratic president. There actually was history back then, you know.

Dugger, Cut-rate pallindrome 2: Madam, I’m Eve
Frank_D says:

January 25, 2006 at 12:01 pm

Can you really make laws that hurt the biggest manufacturers in the country? I think not.
Mike says:

January 25, 2006 at 6:01 pm

If government leaders sense that our tax dollars will keep major businesses going, then they will give them our tax dollars. Witness the billions in corporate welfare the Clinton administration gave to Enron when everyone thought that Enron was the fastest-growing, most successful company in American history.

It would be a far greater disaster for a legacy company like Ford to fold up completely, thus wiping out pensions, health benefits, retirement savings, and investment nest eggs for hundreds of thousands, rather than for them to accept money from the government.
Semanticleo says:

January 25, 2006 at 6:01 pm

So, Mike, I assume you are now supporting universal healthcare
provided by the government for the millions of UNINSURED individuals
and not just for corporations?