American corporations get taxpayer-funded services from the U.S. government that have a value almost beyond calculation. From research and development at home that aid the drug and nuclear industries to military and diplomatic assistance for our firms in all parts of the world—including covert CIA assistance to deal with uncooperative foreign leaders and FBI and Homeland Security man-hours to track down pirated CDs and DVDs—large corporations have had countless taxpayer dollars doing their work for them.
A service offered to many companies that are household words, for example, is promotion in foreign markets; during the '90s, the National Peanut Council, Sunkist, Gallo, McDonald's, and even Newman's Own each received funding, ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Market Access Program (formerly the Market Promotions Program).
The government also gives corporations, especially those operating abroad, help with their security problems, assistance in obtaining information they need for their marketing strategies, and diplomatic help, as when President George W. Bush sent former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to Russia to argue for, among other things, friendlier investment laws for American companies (including the Carlyle Group, which employed Bush's father at the time). Sometimes the government provides even more concrete aid, such as roadways like those we helped build in Indonesia after the tsunami of 2004, which have provided access to that country's remote areas for the oil and timber industries.
Yet, though our corporations equate themselves with America, patriotism and capitalism (a paradox, since the public help they lean on would make more sense under communist theory), they are paying less federal tax all the time. In 1943 they were paying 39.8 percent of all federal taxes, providing nearly two-fifths of the revenue it takes to keep the country running. By 2001 they were paying 21 percent. In 2004 they paid only 7.4 percent, according to a Government Accounting Office report. The GAO report showed that 61 percent of U.S. corporations large and small paid no federal income taxes from 1996 through 2000, though corporate profits were rising during those years. And 71 percent of foreign-controlled companies paid the U.S. no taxes on profits earned here in those years.
Increasingly it's individual taxpayers, including the hard-pressed working poor, who foot the bill for the perks corporations get from the government. To add insult to injury, the CEOs of these firms are making vastly more than the small taxpayers who help finance their prosperity, and providing less employment for ordinary Americans as they continue to outsource jobs.
