Think Tank Scholar Exposes Washington Hypocrites

The Biden administration, and a number of populist Republicans, make a great show about how large, faceless corporations don’t pay their “fair share” of taxes.

It would be a less economically illiterate argument to make if it were not for those same politicians who give many of those same companies tax breaks, subsidies, and trade protections.

As the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards writes, such double-dealing makes for a lot of hypocrites in official Washington:

[Biden] signed into law three massive bills handing out hundreds of billions of dollars of narrow tax breaks and spending subsidies to big corporations. It is the biggest gusher of corporate welfare ever.

Biden elaborated in his [State of the Union] speech, “I also want to end tax breaks for Big Pharma, Big Oil….” But he has given huge tax breaks and spending subsidies to Big Semiconductor, Big Wind, Big Solar, Big Battery, Big Automaker, Big Utility, and so on.

Rather than trickle‐​down economics, this is a Niagara Falls of subsidies flooding from Washington to the president’s favored industries and corporations.

To be fair, what Biden signed had bipartisan support – and as the League of Conservation Voters notes, Republican populists are widely touting the benefits of “Biden’s” green corporate welfare schemes in their re-election campaigns. Even though they voted against the bill.

One could easily call this cynical. But sadly, it’s Standard Operating Procedure in D.C.

Corporate welfare programs like the CHIPs Act, which will shower billions of dollars on semiconductor companies to make chips in the U.S., had plenty of bipartisan support. The same was true for the Infrastructure Act passed in the Biden administration’s early days.

Corporate welfare has always been a bipartisan affair. The majorities change depending on which party controls the legislative agenda (and the White House). But the end is fairly predictable: more money will go out the door to support favored industries or individual companies, and everyone else will pay for it.

Remember that the next time a member of Team Blue or Team Red talks about how someone isn’t paying their fair share. It’s the politicians who’ve created the rules, and the incentives for corporations. Every time they point a finger of blame, three fingers point right back at them.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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Norman Leahy

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Norman Leahy has written about national and Virginia politics for more than 30 years with outlets ranging from The Washington Post to BearingDrift.com. A consulting writer, editor, recovering think tank executive and campaign operative, Norman lives in Virginia.

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