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corporate america
How Corporate America Subverts Reform to Boost Profits
Corporations use their endless resources to ensure that efforts designed to benefit people enrich those at the very top.
Apr 01, 2023
One measure of corporate power’s dominance is its 24/7 relentless, profit-driven capacity to strike back and prevail over reforms or other efforts designed to give the people voice and fairness.
Here are some examples that should give us pause in touting civic victories:
A few years ago, during lunch with the formidable, creative Brian Lamb—founder of C-SPAN—I asked whether, after decades of blanket coverage of Congressional sessions, accessible to millions of people, Congress was an improved institution. After all, as Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote: “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” His reply: “No.” Such is the ever-growing grip of corporate lobbyists directly on and inside Congress, compared to the unorganized sovereign people back home.
The massive government investment in developing important pharmaceuticals over the decades, followed by free giveaways of these discoveries to drug companies, was supposed to reduce the corporate cost of discovering and testing new medicines and thereby reduce what companies like Pfizer, Merck and Eli Lilly would charge patients. No way—Americans, who paid for these discoveries, are charged record-high prices for pharmaceuticals—higher than in any other country in the world.
To add insult to injury, American drug firms exported production of many of these medicines to China and India for importing back to the U.S. for a greater profit than might come from U.S. production. One result—the national security nightmare of our country not producing any antibiotics here at home!
During the second Bush Administration, Congress cut the tax rate sharply to induce U.S. companies to bring home tens of billions of stored dollars in return for businesses promising to invest this money in productive enterprise and wage gains. Result—a double-cross. Instead, the companies bought back their own stock, pumped up executive compensation, and funded mergers.
Years ago, Congress passed legislation allowing business corporations to deduct up to ten percent of their taxable income for charitable contributions. The lawmakers thought this would unleash large sums of money to help the needy in addition to educational and civic initiatives.
Result: Only a tiny number of major corporations exceed the one percent level of charitable donations. Hugely profitable companies give to charitable activities at a fraction of one percent. Apple is one of them, headed by CEO Tim Cook who makes $833 A MINUTE!
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does not require companies to disclose their percentage of charitable contributions. Institutional and individual shareholders should introduce resolutions to compel the top brass to do so. Such resolutions should win a majority of votes and open the door to the shame and embarrassment of stingy companies. In such a “soft area,” this may be enough to spring tens of billions of dollars for “good works.” Wake up perpetrators of “good works!” All you have to lose is your perennial red ink.
President Bill Clinton produced another unintended boomerang when in 1993, he got through Congress a revenue rule prohibiting deductibility for any corporate boss who received annual compensation above $1 million a year. However, the rule came with a giant “loophole.” As Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies wrote in a report you should read: “So-called ‘performance’ pay, including stock options and certain bonuses, would be exempted from the deductibility cap.”
Result: Executive compensation via deviously calculated stock options and bonuses skyrocketed, and, combined with a Reaganite elimination of SEC restrictions over stock buybacks in 1982, led to the gigantic waste of trillions of dollars of corporate profits poured (shareholder money) into unproductive stock buybacks.
Corporate bosses have a personal interest in stock buybacks. As Steve Clifford showed in his book The CEO Pay Machine: How It Trashes America and How to Stop It, the bosses developed metrics for raising their pay that just happened to coincide with the stock buyback and stock option racket.
The emergence of the Pentagon-developed Internet was supposed to even a playing field between the haves and the have-nots by making access, retrieval, and transfer of knowledge and informed advocacy virtually free. It was supposed to give power to the people.
Result: Addictive trivia to the masses, information overload, and the rise of the Wardens of the Internet Gulag – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and the rest of these unregulated control freaks who distribute your personal information anywhere in the world for big profits.
Then, of course, there is the old standby—Regulatory Capture. First comes reforms for the people after years of striving to create health, safety, and economic regulatory agencies to impose some ‘law and order’ on the out-of-control corporate bandits and greed hounds. Then come the rebounds. Corporate lobbyists, campaign cashiers, and the placement of corporatists to run federal agencies. These corporate operatives work to put the agencies to sleep or to actually turn them against the people directly through this internal sabotage. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) are two such examples.
Congress has even let the drug and medical device companies fund the FDA’s drug approval regulatory apparatus. What’s that saying about ‘not biting the hand that feeds you’?
Knowing about this second, third, and fourth strike capability by big business may sensitize citizen groups and advocates to demand that the Democratic Party, at least, be alert and forceful in rolling back these anti-people travesties when they achieve majority status on Capitol Hill. Rhetoric is useless.
To date, the Dems have rarely done so even for such giveaways as Trump’s 2017 huge tax cut for the rich and powerful, which the Democrats had opposed. Taking over the House in 2019, some Dems led by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Richard Neal (D-MA) openly said they were not going to move to repeal and use the monies for good purposes.
Persistent Democracy does take work, doesn’t it? Oh people!
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'A Great Day for Corporate America': US Senate Passes Fast Track
'Shameful' vote all but ensures approval of mammoth trade deals like the TransPacific Partnership
Jun 23, 2015
In a win for multinational corporations and the global one percent, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly advanced Fast Track, or Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), ensuring for all practical purposes the continued rubber-stamping of clandestine trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The cloture motion to end debate needed 60 votes and it got just that, passing the chamber 60-37. The full roll call is here. A final vote will come on Wednesday. Having overcome the biggest hurdle, the legislation is expected to pass, and will then be sent to President Barack Obama's desk to become law.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who campaigned vigorously against Fast Track, said the vote represented a win for corporate America. "The vote today--pushed by multi-national corporations, pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street--will mean a continuation of disastrous trade policies which have cost our country millions of decent-paying jobs," the presidential candidate said in a statement.
And Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), another of the most vocal opponents of Fast Track, railed against TPA moments before the vote, accusing Congress of turning on its "moral" obligation to assist the working class.
"How shameful," Brown said. "We're making this decision knowing people will lose their jobs because of our action."
According to The Hill:
Thirteen Democrats backed fast-track in Tuesday's vote, handing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a major legislative victory. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) voted against the procedural motion.
The Democrats cast "yes" votes even though the trade package did not include a worker's assistance program for people displaced by increased trade. The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program was a part of the last fast-track package approved by the Senate in May, but became a key part of opposition to the package among Democrats in the House.
Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, pointed out that the vote only came about via "elaborate legislative contortions and gimmicks designed to hand multinational corporations their top priority."
Such contortions were necessary, she added, "because the American people overwhelmingly oppose these deals, notwithstanding an endless barrage of propaganda."
Indeed, the response from the progressive grassroots was fast--and furious.
"We're outraged that Congress today voted to fast track pollution, rather than the job-creating clean energy we need to address climate change," said May Boeve, executive director of 350.org. "It's clear this deal would extend the world's dependence on fracked gas, forbid our negotiators from ever using trade agreements in the fight against global warming, and make it easier for big polluters to burn carbon while suing anyone who gets in the way. That's why we're so disappointed President Obama has taken up the banner for ramming this legislative pollution through the halls of Congress, in a way he never pushed for a climate bill."
Groups threatened political fall-out for those Democrats who voted in favor of Fast Track.
"Senate Democrats who just voted to proceed on Fast Track for the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership openly betrayed the grassroots Democratic activists who helped elect them and have been exceedingly clear in their opposition to any legislation that allows more NAFTA-style trade deals to be jammed through Congress," said Jim Dean, chair of Democracy for America. "The Senate Democrats who allowed Fast Track should know that this vote will be remembered, it will not be erased, and we will hold you accountable."
Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, echoed that warning as she declared, "The senators who provided the margin of Fast Track victory will face angry voters in their next elections. Constituents will hold them accountable for putting the interests of transnational corporations ahead of the public."
In addition to calling out Senate Democrats who "betrayed people and the planet" by voting for cloture on Tuesday, National People's Action Campaign executive director George Goehl lambasted "the virtual silence of the leading Democratic candidate for president," which he said "shows the stranglehold corporations have over both political parties."
And Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy program at the Institute for Policy Studies, said it was clear who will benefit most if the pending deals are given final passage. Today is a "great day for the big money interests," she said following the Senate vote.
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Fast Track Derailed? House Deals Blow to Corporate-Friendly Trade Agenda
But groups warn citizens to 'remain vigilant to ensure that future efforts to pass Fast Track and climate-destroying trade agreements are defeated'
Jun 12, 2015
Though it wasn't the resounding rejection progressives had hoped for, the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday dealt a serious blow to President Barack Obama's corporate-backed trade agenda, while erecting a major stumbling block for proponents of Fast Track, or trade promotion authority.
After a tense showdown and multiple votes in the chamber, a final decision on Fast Track was ultimately deferred, affording a delay that critics say could further scuttle the trade authority.
"Today was a big win, but the thousands of climate activists across the country who stood up and linked arms with fellow progressives to get us here won't rest until Fast Track and TPP are dead for good."
--May Boeve, 350.org
"Today's votes to stall Fast Track and TPP are a major win for anyone who cares about climate change," said 350.org executive director May Boeve. "This disastrous deal would extend the world's dependence on fracked gas, forbid our negotiators from ever using trade agreements in the fight against global warming, and make it easier for big polluters to burn carbon while suing anyone who gets in the way."
She continued: "That message clearly broke through today, as House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi got up, bucked enormous pressure, and rallied against the deal, specifically citing concerns about its impact on climate change. Today was a big win, but the thousands of climate activists across the country who stood up and linked arms with fellow progressives to get us here won't rest until Fast Track and TPP are dead for good."
A bill on Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which would provide aid to workers displaced because of so-called "free trade" agreements, had been packaged with Fast Track authority, and a vote against either doomed the total package. Legislators opposed to Fast Track sought to derail the entire package by voting against TAA.
And derail it they did, voting 126-302 against TAA.
"While the fight will no doubt continue, today's vote is a victory for America's working people and for the environment. It is clearly a defeat for corporate America, which has outsourced millions of decent-paying jobs and wants to continue doing just that."
--Senator Bernie Sanders
Moments later, the chamber did pass a stand-alone version of Fast Track. But, as the New York Timesexplains, because the Senate version linked TAA and Fast Track, the House vote "would force the Senate to take up a trade bill all over again. And without trade adjustment assistance alongside it, passing trade promotion authority in the Senate would be highly doubtful."
Instead, the House will reportedly take up TAA again next week.
Still, progressives viewed Friday's deferral of a final decision as a victory even as they cautioned against becoming complacent.
"I applaud the House of Representatives for the vote today," said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a statement after the vote. "While the fight will no doubt continue, today's vote is a victory for America's working people and for the environment. It is clearly a defeat for corporate America, which has outsourced millions of decent-paying jobs and wants to continue doing just that."
Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth added: "Today's move to delay final decision on the trade package represents a significant victory in the fight to ensure that toxic trade agreements like the TPP do not get bulldozed through Congress." But he noted the victory "is not decisive. Friends of the Earth and others will remain vigilant to ensure that future efforts to pass Fast Track and climate-destroying trade agreements are defeated."
As Lori Wallach of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch pointed out after the vote, "Passing trade bills opposed by a majority of Americans does not get easier with delay because the more time people have to understand what's at stake, the angrier they get and the more they demand that their congressional representatives represent their will."
This story is developing. Follow ongoing reaction to the votes, and their implications, on Twitter:
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