Avoid the “fiscal cliff” America: Cut the cord with big business.

Over the past couple of days, it seems that everytime I turn on the computer two things seem to pop up every time:  Former head of CIA David Petraeus’ scandal and how America is about ready to jump off a financial cliff.  I’ve been hearing the term “austerity” or the reduction of services to citizens throughout the past couple of days and after reading countless of articles about how to cut the budget, one thing came to mind: why not cut corporate welfare?  The United States’ defecit is filled with a myriad of debts, loans, subisdaries, mostly from big businesses.  Also let’s not forget that Social Security and Medicare has unfunded liabilities at over 100 trillion dollars.  However, the biggest culprit is the Department of Agriculutre, which is given in excess of 25 billion dollars, follwed by energy department (17 billion).  

There are many types of corporate welfare, from the 182 million dollar bailout of insurance company AIG in 2008, to President Obama’s 67 billion dollar bailout of the automotive industry.  Both of these I feel are prime examples bailouts in which there were polarizing points of view.  Let’s be honest, by cutting corporate welfare and saving an estimated 100 billion dollars a year, won’t balance our government’s budget however it will start a new wave of politics in which lobbyists in Washington will have no pull over anyone and law-makers will not have to fear giving anymore subusidies to those who constantly need them.  This is easier said than done, however if there is anything that both republicans and democrats believe in it corporate welfare.  On one side you have the republicans, who favor big business such as the banks, and companies, and then you have the Democrats, who oppose big business but are in favor of bigger government so in regards of handling of handling people’s monies, both have their fair share of screw ups (I’m being overtly nice with my use of langugage).

Cutting corporate welfare from our government is vital for us simply because we cannot run the risk of making money off of companies investments.  Some may argue that the AIG bailout was a success, as it brought the US an 18 billion dollar profit.  However, that is not the norm and when one wants to think about corporate welfare I would like to infrom you about a little company that due to it’s risky investments collapsed: Enron.  December 31, 2012 is the date that we are supposed to fall off the fiscal cliff, taxes are supposed to increase, unemployment might go up, and if not managed carefully, we will spiral downard into a sea of recession.  Ending corporate welfare is not going to single-handedly end our recession, however it will show the public that our governemnt is starting to take care of those who vote them to their positions in the first place, and that alone is a small step for all of us.