Corporate
Welfare

September 26, 2001

Corporate welfare is alive and well

Not so long ago, the airline industry (backed by the Republicans) was screaming for government deregulation. They made the case that government regulations hurt both the companies and the passengers.

If recent articles were accurate, the airline industry started to run into financial difficulty earlier this year.

This bad situation was made worse by the World Trade Center disaster in New York City. Friday, Congress approved a $15 billion relief package for the airline industry.

Somehow this doesn't seem right. If the airline industry wanted the government to keep hands off before, why did it ask for what amounts to a government-funded, corporate welfare program now?

As a result of the Republican brokered tax cut earlier this year, President Bush and Congress must now use Social Security (payroll) taxes to pay for this relief package. Sometime in 2016, the Social Security Administration will not collect enough in payroll taxes to cover all the benefits it has to pay out.

To cover the financing gap, the SSA will begin redeeming an estimated $4.9 trillion worth of Treasury bonds that Social Security will have accumulated from surpluses it has been running since the 1980s.

As the bonds are redeemed, Congress will be required to cover the costs by raising income and payroll taxes, cutting benefits and/or borrowing money. By 2038, under the trustees' best guess, the bonds will be exhausted.

My hope is that by 2038, Congress and future presidents will find it in their hearts to provide Social Security with the necessary funding for those who are being asked to provide corporate welfare today.

Nikola (Nick) Drobac
Aliquippa

Letters to the Editor
The Times/Beaver Newspapers, Inc.; dba The Beaver County Times
Wednesday, September 26, 2001, page