Bill Takes Aim At ‘Corporate Pork’
Eliminating “corporate welfare” is such a touchy subject on Capitol Hill that even the notion of establishing a commission to help identify needless subsidies can unnerve some members of Congress.
Expressing concern that a panel might overlook the rationales for some subsidies - such as ensuring air transport to underserved areas - Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ted Stevens lamented Tuesday, “I can see the headlines tomorrow: ‘Stevens Questions Commission To Eliminate Pork.”’
“The system has gotten to the point that anyone who thinks out loud is in trouble,” said the Alaska Republican. “I’m in trouble right now.”
A bipartisan bill proposes an eight-member commission that would review federal subsidies and targeted tax provisions for private industry and identify those that are unnecessary and unfair or without a compelling public interest. Congress would have to vote on changes by the end of 1997.
“Corporate pork wastes resources, increases the deficit, distorts markets and has no place either in a free market economy or in a budget where we are asking millions of Americans to sacrifice for the good of future generations,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a key author of the bill.
Added Martha Phillips of the bipartisan Concord Coalition, which espouses a balanced federal budget: “People want to do their share to balance the budget, but they don’t want to be chumps.”
Stevens contended that Congress has repeatedly rejected opportunities to quash programs sometimes deemed “corporate pork,” often because the legislation never considered why the subsidy was established, whether that reason remained valid and the impact if the subsidy were erased.
“Somehow, people think that if those same issues come up in a bill from a commission, the Congress will change its mind,” Stevens said.
Although he didn’t oppose a commission, he said, he didn’t want it “dumping in our laps something called corporate pork when those of us with an institutional memory know that’s not what it was for.”
Last fall, McCain offered an amendment that would have curbed a so-called “dirty dozen” subsidies. Only one-quarter of the Senate supported it.
“I don’t like these commissions that do jobs for us that we ought to do for ourselves,” said Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., another author of the commission bill. But a bipartisan panel that would thoughtfully evaluate subsidies and tax breaks might be the only way to get Congress to act, he said.
Cautioning that “commissions are not magic,” Phillips said, “If you set one up, you’ll have to invest a lot to make it work. If you don’t pull it off, people will say, ‘Same as usual.”’
Ann McBride of Common Cause said campaign finance reform was key to ending corporate welfare because of special interests’ cash.
“Their campaign contributions to Democratic and Republican members of Congress and their huge donations to both political parties have helped to ensure that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal corporate welfare keeps flowing their way,” McBride said.
The liberal Progressive Policy Institute endorsed a commission.
“I certainly appreciate how difficult it is to withdraw any of these benefits,” said Robert Shapiro of PPI. “That’s why we have $200 billion annual deficits.”