Corporate Welfare

Bristol-Myers Squibb, more commonly known to us as BMS, has reported second quarter profits of 1 billion US dollars. More importantly, however, is all of that is TAX FREE.

"Overall results were helped largely by $294 million in tax benefits that enabled the company to pay no taxes."

So, let me get this straight - a working stiff has to pay his share of taxes on the lousy 30k that he grosses annually, so that a huge multinational corporation (henceforth, MNC) can pay zero?

This, my friends is what we refer to when we're talking about corporate welfare. Let us reform corporate welfare as we know it, as they did with common welfare. From this point on, we shall refer to it at wealthfare. Because that is precisely what it is - a government hand out to companies that are very profitable.

So, I suggest that we demand that these hand outs to corporate billionaires end immediately.

"This country has a $6 trillion national debt, a growing deficit and is borrowing money from the Social Security Trust Fund in order to fund government services. We can no longer afford to provide over $125 billion every year in corporate welfare -- tax breaks, subsidies and other wasteful spending -- that goes to some of the largest, most profitable corporations in America." ---Congressman Bernie Sanders, CommonDreams.org May 15th, 2002

"Due both to lower basic tax rates and to myriad loopholes, corporate taxes fell from one-third of total federal revenues in 1953 to less than 10% today. Were corporations paying as much tax now as they did in the 1950s, the government would take in another $US250 billion a year - more than the entire budget deficit."
--Chuck Collins

Let us call our attention back to our wonderful friend, Bristol-Myers Squibb. With 1 quarter profits at $1 billion, that means that they are profiting an estimated $4 billion annually. This is out of control.

-- Sales of REYATAZ(R), a protease inhibitor for the treatment of HIV, increased 115%, including a 3% favorable foreign exchange impact, to $183 million in the second quarter of 2005 from $85 million in the same period last year. REYATAZ(R) has achieved a monthly new prescription share of the U.S. protease inhibitors market of approximately 30%. (All of that advertising is paying off.) Sales in Europe continued to grow since its introduction in the second quarter of 2004, achieving sales of $52 million in the second quarter of 2005.

-- Sales of SUSTIVA(R), a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor for the treatment of HIV, increased 9%, including a 2% favorable foreign exchange impact, to $167 million in the second quarter of 2005 from $153 million in the same period last year, primarily due to U.S. prescription growth of approximately 5% for the second quarter of 2005.


Global Sales: $19.4 billion
Charitable Donations: Nearly $650 million in product and cash contributions
So this means that the generous, tax free, corporate billionaires were nice enough to give roughly 3.5% of their total sales

Here's the contact information for this lovely little company that provides us with the necessary toxins Reyataz and Sustiva:

Chief Executive Officer:
Peter R. Dolan

Headquarters:
345 Park Avenue

New York, New York, USA 10154-0037

212-546-4000

Call, write or email them on their web form and ask them why they do not have to pay taxes, while the rest of us, who can barely afford their products do. Further, if some PR person tries to tell you about how much charitable giving they do, remind them that it only constitutes 3.5% of their total gross receipts!