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September 24, 2004

Posted 2:05 AM Eastern

NewsWithViews.com

McDonald's runs 30,000 restaurants in 121 countries around the world and earns $40 billion dollars a year in sales.

McDonald's has also been the recipient of huge windfalls from the American taxpayer's checkbook. Congress has given this mega billion dollar corporation as much as $1.6 million dollars to help promote Big Mac burgers in Europe. This largess from the public treasury is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "Market Access Program." This diversion of taxpayer's money is funneled to wealthy corporations under the guise of promoting American products.

This news didn't sit too well with Melissa Sanders whose husband works two jobs in California so she can stay home with their two children, ages 2 & 4. "This is an outrage! After all the taxes eat my husband's paycheck and he has to work two jobs just so we can make ends meet, now I find out it is given to a mega corporation like McDonald's? Fine. Since they're stealing our money to make stockholders richer, our family will never step foot in a McDonald's again." A similar, yet more colorful response was given by an elderly couple who wished their names withheld, "We don't eat McDonald's because their food is unhealthy. Now we find out they're getting our money anyway from #&**! politicians who care nothing for the American people."

Congress has been generous with the taxpayer's purse to other conglomerates like Campbell's Soup: $300,000, $1.4 billion dollars to IBM, $671 million to powerhouse, General Electric, $3 million to the California Raisin Board and a whopping $4.9 million to Ernest & Julio Gallo winery. Jacob & Rachel Smith are Mormans who live in Salt Lake City and are outraged that their tax dollars are being given to wineries and want to know "how is this legal?"

According to Constitutional scholar Miranda DeWine, it isn't. "Congress gets away with this unconstitutional pillaging of the public treasury because the very same pockets getting picked (the people), refuse to vote out incumbents. Instead, every two and four years, they play the same infantile games: The fault lies with the 'extremist' Republicans who want to starve old people or the fault lies with the 'liberal' Democrats who haven't found a welfare program they didn't want to tax you into poverty to fund. Some day the American electorate is going to figure out it is Congress as a whole that has stolen their money and will continue to do so until the people say enough and throw them all out of office in one election. That will send a very clear message to the newly elected."

Responding to our question, what can people do besides vote, Ms. DeWine said people who own stock in these corporations can sell their stock and the consumer can refuse to patronize these corporations - don't buy their products and services. Eventually, the message will be heard and in the long run, Americans will benefit."

These giveaways aren't just to corporations, but also extend to farm subsidies in the billions to recipients like former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, billionaire Charles Schwab, Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen, billionaire David Rockefeller, TV anchorman Sam Donaldson, Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain and billionaire Ted Turner.

The total tab for more than 100 corporate welfare programs is a staggering $87 billion dollars a year. This money is borrowed from the Federal Reserve and added to the national debt. According to the U.S. National Debt Clock, the outstanding public debt as of September 19, 2004 at 02:49:59 am GMT was: $7,381,027,334,606.81. Two minutes later, the amount increased to $7,381,030,515,640.98. (search).

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.69 billion per day since September 30, 2003.

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Congress has been generous with the taxpayer's purse to other conglomerates like Campbell's Soup: $300,000, $1.4 billion dollars to IBM, $671 million to powerhouse, General Electric, $3 million to the California Raisin Board and a whopping $4.9 million to Ernest & Julio Gallo winery.