Corporate Welfare?

The Best Government Corporations Can Buy:

A Guide to the Top Corporate Campaign Contributors

By Rex Frankel

When our government does something to help the less fortunate in this country, there's always a chorus of so-called experts on the TV who call that "welfare for the undeserving." Most of the time, however, it seems our government prefers to take care of the needs of big corporations, which buy and sell most politicians from our major political parties. And yet, it's hard to find one of TV's alleged experts who will criticize the billions of dollars our government gives away each year to these big corporations. The corporate-owned media blacks out this information because they're also big recipients of corporate welfare.

It's amazingly arrogant when super-rich corporate monopolies cry poverty and demand taxpayer-financed bailouts, tax breaks and relief from government regulations. But apparently, things aren't so tough that they can't afford to pay millions of dollars to re-elect pro-business types to Congress and the White House.

On the state level, voters passed Proposition 208 last year, which severely limited contributions to candidates for state and local political offices. Republicans and Democrats challenged the limits in court and the judge ruled the law unconstitutional. (Will wonders never cease?)

Federal campaign contributions given in '95 and `96 were summarized last year by the L.A. Times, in the September 21st issue. But the Times, which is also a monopoly selling five times as many papers as its nearest competitor, neglected to mention to readers what these corporate campaign contributors own, and what they got in exchange for their money. We as consumers actually have a lot of power over big business interests, simply by boycotting their many products, that is, if we know what they are.

AEROSPACE/MILITARY CONTRACTING:

The U.S. Government and taxpayers spend over $100 billion a year on military supplies purchased from private companies. Over the last 2 years, 7 of the top ten military contractors in 1995 were merged into the top three.

The biggest campaign contributors, ranked in order of government contracts received, are:

#1 Lockheed-Martin, giver of $1.4 million: allowed to buy up Northop-Grumman, Loral and military contracting divisions of Xerox, IBM, Ford, Honeywell, Unysis, RCA, Goodyear, and Fairchild.

#2-Boeing Corporation, maker of 747 and 767 jets: allowed by the Clinton administration to buy 2 other top military contractors, McDonnell-Douglas and Rockwell International.

#3-Raytheon Corporation: recently bought Hughes Aircraft from General Motors and owns Texas Instruments' military division.

#4-General Dynamics: gave $616,000.

#5-United Technologies gave $736,000

#6-Litton gave $244,000

#7-General Electric gave $812,000

#8 Textron gave $1.4 million.

MEDIA:

The government, and therefore the public, actually owns all the radio and TV airwaves in this country. Yet, over the years these stations have been given away for free to private interests, and the rules preventing a few big corporations from controlling them have been, little by little, stripped away. Our phone and cable TV companies are likewise monopolies, granted by our government to big corporations seemingly forever. Relief was promised in a telecommunications "reform" law passed by Congress in 1996, which actually made it easier for even fewer hands to control the media. The one relief given to the consumer was that rates would be lowered due to there being more "competition." This proved to be false as the law was gutted by pro-big business judges. So, we get no rate reductions by phone or cable TV companies. But the judges left standing the part of the law that lets corporations buy up as many media outlets as they want. Since the bill's passage, Westinghouse, one of America's largest nuclear energy companies, has become the largest owner of radio stations in the country. They own 8 stations in Los Angeles. The Disney Co. has 3. Hicks, owner of Dr. Pepper and 7-Up, has 6 stations here.

These megacorporations gave a lot to politicians for these favors:

Time-Warner: $895,000. Owns WB-TV, Warner Brothers movies and records, HBO, CNN, Time, People and Sports Illustrated magazines.

Walt Disney Company: $872,000; owns ABC-TV and radio, ESPN, Mickey Mouse and Disneyland.

General Electric: $812,000; owns NBC-TV, CNBC cable, and makes nuclear reactors and jet engines.

Telecommunications Inc.: $673,000; #1 USA owner of cable TV systems.

Viacom: $450,000; owns Paramount Pictures, MTV, Showtime, VH-1, UPN-TV.

Westinghouse/CBS: $395,000; owns CBS-TV and radio, The Nashville Channel and Country Music TV.

Telephone monopolies gave even more to our federal politicians:

AT & T: $2.2 million; co-owns L.A. Cellular

MCI: $1.1 million

GTE: $497,000

Ameritech: $935,000

BellSouth: $933,000

Nynex: $944,000

Southwestern Bell/Pacific Telesis: $1.36 million

Bell Atlantic: $684,000

TOBACCO:

Sure, smoking kills millions of people, but the federal budget is still loaded with money to help support tobacco farming and to pay the medical bills of people sickened by tobacco addiction. This poison creates a lot of jobs! But America's top cigarette makers also sell a lot of food. They are:

Philip Morris, giver of $3.8 million to federal politicians, owns Miller beer, Kraft cheeses, Knudsen milk, Oscar Mayer and Louis Rich meats, Entenmann's cakes, Post cereals and Jell-O. They sell 42% of all cigarettes sold in the USA, and their Marlboro brand sells 28% of all cigarettes alone.

RJR Nabisco gave $2.3 million to federal politicians. They sell 29% of cigarettes in the USA, such as Winston and Camels, and they also make Oreo's.

The entire tobacco industry also gave $2 million to federal politicians in the first half of 1997, with $1.6 million going to Republicans, and $324,000 to Democrats.

BANKING:

The consumer financial industry is one of the most monopolistic, with 2 banks controlling 85% of savings deposits in California. Taxpayers have poured hundreds of into this industry over recent years to keep it afloat, thanks to shady investments and outright fraud by land-developing bankers.

Bank of America has 57% of deposits since its merger with Security Pacific Bank a few years ago. It gave $911,000 to federal politicians in 1995-96.

Wells Fargo holds 28% of California deposits, since its takeover of First Interstate Bank. Wells gave $178,000 to federal politicians in 95-96.

OIL COMPANIES:

Before gas prices shot to the roof in 1974, gas stations used to have "gas wars", trying to undercut each other's prices in the competition for customers. Now, no competition exists between the big five, pricewise. Despite this obvious price-gouging, a local superior court judge threw out a consumer lawsuit which charged that the oil companies had conspired together to keep prices high. However, the Department of Motor Vehicles revealed (in the Dec. 18, 1989 L.A. Times) that while the number of cars in Southern California rose from 7 to 10 million from 1974 to 1989, the number of gas stations dropped from 8961 to 4972. The oil monopolies gave to federal politicians in 95 and 96:

Arco: $1.2 million

Chevron: $1.07 million

Tosco-76 stations: $33,000

Exxon: $758,000

Mobil: $280,000

Texaco: $363,000