Or is it USA-brand common or garden Decadence, Grand Larceny, Corruption,
SABOTAGE?
A rich-man character in an early black and white mystery says (to the
effect): “I guess you can call me a ‘Socialist’ …; I believe in the
distribution of wealth to me.”
I
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Just as U.S. leaders recite the meaningless propagandist word “democracy”
(indeed, our “democracy”), they routinely
mouth the mantra “free enterprise” (or variations on the theme) — but in the United States of
America today both of these are nonexistent.
T
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here is tyranny in the market place and tyranny in the public space, in
politics. There is concentration of wealth, belligerent monopoly,
government/corporate-public/private/partnered bribery-sweetened cabalism, cannibalism
— and cannibalizing oligarchy. No free and democratic enterprises accessible to rich
and poor, little farmer and bigger farmer.
Government takes and kicks back to its pay “masters.”
F
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arm Subsidies
1995 – 2010 annually on average $52 billion [1/2 of farmers receiving
subsidies annual revenue $100,000+]
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Six percent+ “went toward (subsidized) four ‘junk food’ components:
corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, corn starch, and soy oils.
|
2012 proposed $180 billion in budget cuts slashed “$133 billion” from
“food stamp program, affecting 8 million consumers, not farmers”
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By 2017: large-farm dominance (4 percent of U.S. farms), displacing
unable-to-compete small farms, million+-dollar revenue farms, sales producing
“two-thirds of the nation’s agricultural output”
|
O
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il Subsidies
Actual level of oil industry subsidies estimated by 2012: $10 - $40
billion
Federal Treasury estimated loss over the life of oil subsidy program 1995-2011:
$50 billion
2011 U.S. Government Oil Industry Subsidies
(Source: Taxpayers for Common
Sense report “Subsidy Gusher”)
Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit
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$31 billion
|
Intangible Drilling Costs
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$8.9 billion
|
Oil and Gas Royalty Relief
|
$6.9 billion
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Percentage Depletion Allowance
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$4.327 billion
|
Refinery Equipment Deductions
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$2.3 billion
|
Geological and Geophysical Costs Tax Credit
|
$698 million
|
Natural Gas Distribution Lines
|
$500 million
|
Ultradeepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and other Petroleum
Resources R&D
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$230 million
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Passive Loss Exemption
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$105 million
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Unconventional Fossil Technology Program
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$100 million
|
Other subsidies
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$161 million
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Also indirect oil industry benefits:
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve
|
Defense spending that involves military action in oil-rich countries
in the Persian Gulf
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Construction of the U.S. federal highway system encouraging reliance
on gas-driven vehicles
|
E
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thanol Subsidies
1979 – 2010 (under corn to fuel conversion) corn industry: $20
billion
|
Corn subsidy [controversies: (1) drives up cost of food, (2) as “60
percent of the world’s population is malnourished corn is converted to fuel],
a tax credit of $0.46 a gallon, ended in January 2012
|
E
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xport Subsidies
U.S. Department of Agriculture promotes:
Export Credit Guarantee Program financing U.S. farm exports (USDA
guarantees the buyers’ credit when they can’t get credit approval locally)
|
Dairy Export Incentive Program, paying cash subsidies to dairy
exporters, helping them meet foreign dairy producers’ “subsidized prices”
|
[WTO (World Trade Organization) bans export subsidies but allows these
two U.S. federal government export subsidy programs]
|
In a report by Darryl Coote of UPI, U.S. President Donald Trump was speaking
at the site of a petrochemicals plant under construction in Monaco, Pa., in
which he “threatened to pull out of the World Trade Organization (WTO),
saying ‘we’ll leave if we have to.’” The
U.S. president repeated his his oft-repeated claim that “WTO member states,
especially China,” have “taken advantage” of the United States. UPI “Trump
threatens to pull out of WTO” https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/08/14/Trump-threatens-to-pull-out-of-WTO/2691565760096/
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H
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ousing Subsidies
$15 billion annual housing subsidies (a. interest rate subsidies, b. down-payment
assistance) “to promote home ownership and support the construction industry”)
during which came the case of Government leaders’ Fannie Mae/Fannie Mac debacle:
|
Federal Housing Authority mortgage loan guarantee program created government-sponsored
enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a “secondary market to buy mortgages
from banks” ; Fannie and Freddie (ridiculous names) recklessly over lend, causing
the bad-loan (90 percent home-loan arrears) deck of cards to fall, leaving the
U.S. Treasury to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a price tag totaling at
least “$100 billion.” And no one lost his position or was prosecuted or convicted
of a crime, or sent to prison for an extended period of self-reflection.
|
S
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ubsidies Other
Economy improvements, jump-starting with post-recession subsidies aimed at
encouraging people to “buy more fuel-efficient vehicles and lessen U.S.
reliance on foreign oil” (e.g., 2009 “Cash for Clunkers program,” subsidizing
auto dealers at a cost of “up to $4,500 … after discounting a new vehicle to
a consumer who had traded in an old car”)
|
Obamacare (budgeted for 2015-2024) … $1.039 trillion [10.6 million
Americans eligible for subsidies, by February 2018, most had not gotten them].…
for middle-class working families (i.e., people who hold “jobs as food
service workers, administrative personnel, and health aides”; also on jobs
that provide no health insurance); intended expenditure “on expanded Medicaid
and Children’s Health Insurance Program for the poor”: “$792 billion”
|
Sources
US Government Subsidies: Farm, Oil, Export, Etc.,
https://www.thebalance.com/government-subsidies-definition-farm-oil-export-etc-3305788
UPI “Trump threatens to pull out of WTO” https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/08/14/Trump-threatens-to-pull-out-of-WTO/2691565760096/
TRT World News “Trump’s top five withdrawals from international
agreements” June 29, 2018
“US President Donald Trump has made several controversial decisions,
including ones that forced the US out of international institutions. … The
United States President Donald Trump withdrew his country from five significant
international agreements since he took the oath of office in January 2017.
- Withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement
“In June last year, Trump didn’t lose any time after he took office to
withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, a commitment by countries across the
world to curb climate change and global warming. Trump justified the exit by
citing ‘draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes’ on the
US.”
- Withdrawal from Trans-Pacific Partnership
“Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the pact early last year
under his ‘America First’ policy, reversing decades-old trade policies, hoping
to bring jobs back to the US.”
Withdrawal from UNESCO
“The US said last October that they were pulling out of the United
Nations’ culture and education body, UNESCO.”
- Leaving Iran nuclear deal
“Donald Trump withdrew the US from the landmark nuclear accord with
Iran in May, restoring harsh sanctions in the most consequential foreign policy
action of his presidency.”
- Withdrawal from UN Human Rights Council
“…the US Ambassador to the United Nations, then- Nikki Haley, announced
America’s withdrawal from the Human Rights Council, saying “‘no other countries’
‘had the courage to join our fight to reform’ the ‘hypocritical and
self-serving’ body.”♦ “The decision came
a month after the Human Rights Council launched a probe into (then-) recent
killings in Gaza and accused Israel of excessive use of force.” https://www.trtworld.com/americas/trump-s-top-five-withdrawals-from-international-agreements-18543
The Herald (Zimbabwe) “US withdrawal from
Treaty creates major complications for world affairs” Features, Opinion &
Analysis, August 14, 2019
- “On February 1, 2019, the United States of America launched a procedure to withdraw from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles. The six-month period set forth in the Treaty’s withdrawal clause has expired. When one of the parties withdraws from the Treaty, it ceases to have effect automatically. Therefore, as of August 2, 2019 the INF Treaty no longer exists. Our US colleagues sent it to the archives, making it a thing of the past.…
- “[T]the unilateral withdrawal by the United States from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles under a far-fetched pretext and the dismantlement of one of the last fundamental arms control treaties creates major complications for world affairs and brings about serious risks for everyone” [From a statement by the Russian Federation]. https://www.herald.co.zw/us-withdrawal-from-treaty-creates-major-complications-for-world-affairs/
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