Information provided by WILPF
Richard L. Scott
President and CEO, Columbia/HCA
In April 1995, Colombia/HCA Healthcare Corporation received a $90 million
tax break as a reward for locating its corporate headquarters in Nashville,TN.
The Regional Medical Center in Memphis, TN used to get supplemental payments
from Tennessee's Medicaid program. But in January 1993, the payments stopped
and the Regional Medical Center immediately lost $42 million due to the allocation
seta aside for Colombia/HCA. Health services at this public hospital have
been cut and the quality of treatment has declined due to lack of funding.
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.
