Corporate Welfare And The Federal Budget

Over the past few weeks, the citizens of the US have been held hostage over the Tea Party Republicans' rigid stance that unless the majority of US citizens give up their Medicare, Social Security, Medical Assistance, and EPA laws to balance the budget, they won't vote to increase the debt limit. Apparently, they plan to allow the world economic system to collapse because they refuse to allow multi-million dollar corporate executives to give up their tax subsidies - and we all know how poor they are!



Anyway, yesterday the Baltimore Sun published the salaries of some local executives and the percentage increase for the past year. Such individuals as A. L. Giannopoulos, CEO of MICROS Systems, received a compensation package of $7.8 million, triple what he earned last year; and David D. Smith, CEO and chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, received $3.6 million, triple what he earned last year. National CEO pay rose an average of 28%, to a median of $2.8 million. (From Baltimore Sun; http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-2010-executive-compensation-20110710,0,983117.story). So, this is the group of "poor" corporate heads that such individuals as Mr. Paul Ryan, Mr. Eric Cantor, and Mr. John Boehner have fallen on their swords to protect.

By the way, how are the rest of us doing with salaries and employment? Not so well. Unemployment is still relatively high and those wonderful CEOs have not bothered to share the wealth with their employees. Pension plans would probably not take the place of any cuts in Social Security and lowering Social Security COLA would leave many seniors unable to afford the co-pays that they must increasingly pay under Medicare. Yet, seniors have very little choice but to rely on Social Security and Medicare because those wonderful corporations for which they worked have cut pensions. And...can anyone name ANY companies that provide their retirees with health insurance? No? Didn't think so. So, it turns out that Republicans plan to balance the budget on a group of citizens who can't afford to shave even pennies off their incomes! Is that fair?