Information provided by WILPF
Dwayne O. Andreas
Chairman and Chief Executive, Archer Daniels Midland Co.
"The supermarket to the world," Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) receives several
different forms of Corporate Wealthfare. A federal law requiring automobile
fuel to contain 30% ethanol ( a corn derivative) also grants a $.54 per gallon
tax credit kickback to ethanol producers. ADM controls 60% of the ethanol
markets and siphons off about $550 million a year.
The nation's largest corporations and richest citizens receive more welfare
money than our social welfare programs. In 1994, the United States spent $104.3
billion on corporate welfare and $619 billion on the military, while spending
only $14.4 billion on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC.) Federal
aid to corporations and wealthy individuals includes bailouts, export promotions,
loans, loan guarantees, debt forgiveness, below cost sales, interest free
financing and other benefits. The current republican Contract ON America legislation
calls for wiping out most of the remaining corporate income tax. These "wealthfare"
and military expenditure policies are responsible for straining the federal
budget.
Social welfare programs account for a small amount of the national budget.
AFDC is less than 1% of the federal budget and, on average, no more than 2%
of each state's fund. If AFDC is cut as part of the Contract ON America, 6.3
million people will lose food stamps, 3 million women and children will lose
Women Infant And Children (WIC) assistance; and 3 million children will become
ineligible for school lunches. These attacks are aimed primarily at poor families,
90% of which are run by single women. AFDC will be turned into block grants,
administered at the whim of state governments. States will no longer be required
to match federal outlays.
Information provided by WILPF
© 1996, The Feminist Majority Foundation and New Media Publishing
Inc.
