(Ref. 3: This year's corporate welfare figures are ~
$170 Billion)

Fact II: Total federal spending on a safety net for 
the poor costs the average taxpayer about 
$400 a year, while spending on corporate welfare 
programs costs the same taxpayer about 
$1400 a year. (source: CBO figures)

Fact III: Over 90% of the budget cuts passed by the 
last Congress (1996? -ed.) cut spending for the poor 
-- programs that ensure food for the needy, 
housing for the homeless, job training for 
the unemployed, community health care for 
the sick. (source: Center on Budget and 
Policy Priorities, Bearing Most of the Burden, 1996).

Fact IV: Only 3.9% of total federal outlays (as 
of 1996? - ed.) go to programs that solely 
benefit poor people.

Welfare programs for corporations do not 
play by the same rules as welfare for people. 
Welfare benefits for individuals and families are limited 
by strict eligibility requirements and time limits, while 
corporations get corporate welfare benefits regardless 
of wealth or accountability.

Fact VI: Most social spending is in the form of 
discretionary spending, which is scrutinized in 
the annual budget negotiating process in 
Congress; most corporate welfare programs are in 
the form of tax expenditures, which go on and 
on since they are not subject to annual review 
by Congress.

(b) A large number of companies 
making a lot of profits actually
got tax rebates!

See Ref. 1 (page 11) for the 
reasons why these companies 
got these tax breaks

(other than electronics - which we 
will mention in a moment, do
the other industries seem
exceedingly unsurprising?)

(Disclosure: we own stock options
and will be negatively affected by
laws that require stock option
expensing)

The "double taxation" argument is in reality a myth. 
As pointed out by Daniel Gross:
"...The chief argument of those who advocate eliminating 
taxes on dividends is that they are subject to "double 
taxation." Shareholders pay taxes on dividends 
at the rate their ordinary income is taxed. And 
corporations cannot deduct dividends from 
their taxable income, meaning they pay taxes on them, too. 
Does that mean that dividends are double taxed? Only 
if you subscribe to the belief that corporations don't 
pay taxes, people do. Under this theory, since a company's 
profits are ultimately distributed to owners and 
shareholders in some form—dividends, profit sharing, 
salaries, or capital gains—any tax on corporate 
income, or any limits on the deductibility of 
items from taxable income, in effect taxes the same 
dollar of profits twice...
But the double-taxation argument reflects a flawed 
understanding of what corporations do and why 
they are formed. Corporations are distinct entities. 
They are not merely passive conduits of cash. They 
are legal beings, chartered by states to perform certain 
objectives. They possess all sorts of prerogatives, rights, 
and protections not afforded to individuals. That's why 
people form corporations, and that's why it 
is just for corporations to pay taxes on their income.

As Dean Baker points out in TomPaine.com
"...Proponents of a tax preference for dividend income 
have pushed the notion that the taxation of dividend 
income amounts to double taxation. The basis for this 
claim is that corporate profits are subject to the corporate 
income tax. Since dividends are paid out of profits, the 
argument is that the personal income tax paid on dividend 
income amounts to a second tax on corporate profits. This
 logic is dubious for two reasons. First, there is a legal and 
logical distinction between the corporation as an 
entity and the individual shareholders who own 
the firm. Second, the tax rates currently in place were 
set with the knowledge that there was both a corporate 
and individual income tax. This means that if there is a moral 
objection to "double taxation" then the appropriate remedy 
would also require an increase in the corporate income tax..."