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New Year's resolutions
NEWS RELEASE
For Release: Contacts: Ralph Nader and Janice Shields
Jan. 1, 1996
NADER'S NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION FOR CEOs:
CUT CORPORATE WELFARE
On Tuesday, December 19, 1995, 91 CEOs signed a letter to
President Clinton and all Members of Congress, which also was printed in
major newspapers, calling on the President and Congress to balance the
budget. Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader is responding by sending letters
to all of the signatories of the letter asking them, as part of their New
Year's resolutions, to identify the federal subsidies and tax
expenditures that benefit their corporations and to select the subsidies
and tax expenditures that the CEOs agree to begin to forego immediately
in order to help balance the budget.
According to Ralph Nader, "These so-called free-market executives
who demand that the federal budget be balanced should be willing to help
eliminate the deficit by cutting their own corporate welfare."
The text of the letter sent to the CEOs follows:
On Tuesday, December 19, 1995, 91 CEOs signed a letter to
President Clinton, House Speaker Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Bob
Dole, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, House Majority Leader Dick
Armey, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and all members of Congress.
In the letter, which also appeared in two-page advertisements in the New
York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, you implored
Congress to balance the budget.
To balance the budget, federal expenditures must be reduced and
federal revenues must be increased. Spending would fall if corporate
subsidies were cut and revenues would rise if tax expenditures were
eliminated. For example, if Congress abolished only five corporate
subsidies, $5.12 billion would be saved in fiscal year 1996; these
subsidies provide government funding for activities that free-market
proponents would argue should be financed by businesses themselves. (The
subsidies include those provided by the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas
Private Investment Corporation, the Export Enhancement Program, the Market
Promotion Program and the Foreign Military Financing Program.) If Congress
removed only five corporate tax expenditures, an additional $46.4 billion
in federal revenue would be generated in fiscal year 1996. (The tax
expenditures include accelerated depreciation on equipment and buildings,
reduced rates on the first $10,000 of corporate taxable income, the
exception to the source rule for the sale of inventory property, tax
credits for corporations with income in U.S. possessions and expensing
rather than amortization of research and development costs.)
I call on you to validate your appeal for a balanced budget by
signing and returning [by January 30, 1996] the enclosed New Year's
resolution identifying federal subsidies and tax expenditures that
currently benefit your corporation and selecting the subsidies and tax
expenditures that your corporation agrees to begin to forego immediately.
The text of the proposed New Year's resolution for CEOs follows:
CORPORATE NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION
ON FEDERAL SUBSIDIES AND
TAX EXPENDITURES
On December 19, 1995, I was one of 91 corporate signatories to a
letter supporting a balanced budget, which was sent to President Clinton
and all Members of Congress.
To help balance the budget, I have identified the federal
subsidies and tax expenditures that currently benefit my corporation and
selected the subsidies and tax expenditures that my corporation agrees to
begin to forego immediately.
###
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Janice Shields
Coordinator, Corporate Welfare Project & TaxWatch
Center for Study of Responsive Law
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
202-387-8030 | Internet: jshields@essential.org