Corporate welfare has got to stop

Did you ever think what you could do if some beneficent quasi-government agency would just loan you, on excellent credit terms, say, a billion dollars?

I dare say I could give CNN a run for its money.

How about you?

You and I can just speculate and fantasize about hitting the jackpot like that. But multinational corporations like Verizon, McDonald's and GE – the parent company to NBC – can actually run to the Federal Reserve when they face short-term cash crunches and get quick bailouts.

That's what we learned from a recent data dump by the Fed – when it released reports showing some 21,000 such transactions worth $3.3 trillion over the past two years.

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For instance, in a two-day period, the Fed bought $1.5 billion of debt from Verizon in the fall of 2008.

That was a time – and this is a time – when commercial loans for small businesses are next to impossible to secure. But, if you're big enough, it's no problem.

Does that strike you as unfair? Does that strike you as un-American? Does that strike you as fascistic in nature?

Did you know one of the definitions of fascism is a system in which the government hands out special favors and offers special treatment to select businesses? That's what Adolf Hitler did. That's what Benito Mussolini did. And that's what the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve are doing right now in America.

And that's just one reason why the Fed must be abolished – the sooner the better.

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America has always been a country that fostered competition. Competition leads to innovation. It leads to productivity. It leads to job creation. And it leads to wealth creation.

But when wealthy corporations are treated like sacred institutions that are too big to fail, competition is stymied. It's not only unfair and unjust, it's counterproductive to the best interests of the country.

That's why Americans instinctively reacted so negatively to the massive bailouts they learned about in 2008 – bailouts that continue to this day. They know who is ultimately responsible for paying them – you and me.

There's another element to this story that bears serious scrutiny – and I don't expect you to hear about it on the nightly news.

As I mentioned, GE is the parent company of NBC and NBC News and MSNBC.

Have you heard any of the so-called reporters over there mention that their paychecks and their studios and their satellites and their equipment was, in effect, subsidized and guaranteed by taxpayer dollars?

Did you realize that NBC News and MSNBC, and quite possibly other news giants, are, in effect, subsidized by public money, much the same way National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service are?

Do we really expect so-called "news organizations" to report on this kind of injustice and unfairness when they are the recipients of the largesse and favoritism?

Don't you think some public disclosure is in order when these media giants promote bigger government and business as usual in Washington on a daily basis?

In America, we like to talk about how we cast off ideas like slavery and indentured servitude and serfdom long ago – how we broke from the Old World way of doing things.

But when I see this kind of corporate socialism not only still in place in America, but growing, I realize we haven't come all that far. And we're clearly drifting back to the Old World way of doing things.

I understand cash-flow shortages. Every small-business owner in America understands them and faces them. But the Fed is not there for us. We're on our own – even in times of tight credit. That's just a reality. And it's a reality that big, multinational corporations need to live in and plan for, too.