Stealing from the poor

by Les Bayless & Tim Wheeler

This article was reprinted from the December 23, 1995 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

WASHINGTON - Big business entered the budget battle in a big way this week, spending ready cash to tell lawmakers they want big cuts in social programs and they want them now. Combining the worst of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch, 91 of the greediest tycoons in the nation bought a two-page ad in the Washington Post Tuesday to demand cuts in "long- term entitlement programs" for children, the elderly and the poor to achieve a balanced budget within seven years.

The millionaires' ad, addressed to President Clinton and the Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress, is headlined, "Without a balanced budget, the party's over. No matter what party you're in." Pompously it proclaims, "America must begin to live within its means."

Yet the signers, all white men, did not offer to give up a penny of their purloined wealth to achieve their pet goal. According to a May 22 Forbes magazine article headlined "America's Highest Paid Bosses ... Pigging Out," Paul Allaire, CEO of Xerox and a signer of the Post ad, raked in $12.6 million in total income over the past five years. Another signer is M.R. Greenberg, CEO of the American International Group. Forbes reports his five year total income was $28 million.

John Snow, CEO of CSX Corporation, chairman of the Business Roundtable and a signer of the ad, reported $17.8 million in salaries, bonuses and stock options over the past five years.

The ad quotes Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan saying that if the deficit is not reduced there will be "a sharp increase in long term interest rates ... interest sensitive areas of the economy would begin to run into trouble." But this is not a forecast -- it is a threat. And given the tyrannical powers of these millionaires and their banks and corporations, it had the ring of extortion.

They echoed House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole that President Clinton must agree to Republican demands for a balanced budget in seven years using Congressional Budget Office numbers -- no matter what the cost to working people in higher cost health care, education, unemployment, hunger, and homelessness.

An advertising executive at the Washington Post told the World the ad cost "a little over $100,000." The ad also ran in the New York Times, USA Today and other major newspapers.

Within hours after the ad appeared, Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole sent a letter to the executives, agreeing to its content. One critic, however, said the CEOs don't want to end all entitlements.

William Bywater, president of the International Union of Electronic Workers, was furious at the executives who signed the letter. "Talk about gall. These guys have a monopoly on it. They're asking poor people to give away benefits and they're not willing to give up a goddamn thing," Bywater said.

"What I want to know is, how much of the $30 billion to $90 billion in corporate welfare are they proposing to give up? These hypocrites don't care about balancing the government's budget. They're too busy selling out U.S. jobs and exploiting workers overseas. There's only one thing they care about about and that's corporate profits."

Bywater said the reelection of President Clinton may hinge on the outcome of the budget struggle. "The only way for Clinton to be reelected is to support working and poor people. If he goes with the bigwigs, he'll be alienating his base."

Recent data shows a widening income gap between corporate executives and their employees. A CEO now earns 120 times what an average production worker makes, up from 35 times in 1974. According to a study by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, the richest one-fifth of Americans held 80 percent of the nation's wealth. The proposal in their ad to slash Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements proves that the CEO's gluttony is still not satisfied.

A series of meetings between Clinton, Gingrich and Dole failed to produce an agreement on the budget at press time. Progress in "structuring" the negotiations would lead to a another continuing resolution which would reopen the government until after the holidays, according to reports.

As the leaders met at the White House, government workers, idled by another government shutdown, sang "RIFmas" carols outside of Gingrich's Washington residence. Speaking of RIFs -- layoffs due to a "reduction in force" -- American Federation of Government Employees President John N. Sturdivant said, "To callously abandon the sick, the old and the poor in order to provide a tax break for the rich proves how out of touch House Republicans are with the American people."

Under the Republican tax proposal, the top 1 percent -- those making over $200,000 a year -- would get $17,000 in tax reductions. Many working families making less than $30,000 would actually see a tax increase because of reductions in the Earned Income Tax Credit. The second government shutdown in the last 30 days has furloughed a quarter of a million government workers days before Christmas.

Other signers of the ad and their combined five year income:

Duane L. Burnham, CEO of Abbott Laboratories -- $21 million

Alex Trotman, CEO Ford Motor Co. -- $7.8 million

Ralph L. Larsen, CEO Johnson and Johnson -- $11.8 million

David A. Jones, CEO Humana Inc. -- $16.7 million

John B. McCoy, CEO Banc One -- $12.4 million

Dana G. Mead, CEO Tenneco, chairman, National Association of Manufacturers -- $13.3 million.