>>> I for one am tired of welfare for the rich.
>>
>>Hey! Without all that free help it would "hurt business" don't ya know? The magic hand of the market has a really limp wrist it seems. (But I agree, you are bringing up "welfare as we *don't* know it". ;-)
>>
>>What was that term used to describe a close and reciprocal relationship between government and corporation? Does anyone know?
>
>According to IRS data for 2004, the most recent year available:
>Total number of tax returns: 130 million
>Number of Tax Returns for the Bottom 50%: 65 million
>Adjusted Gross Income for the Bottom 50%: $922 billion
>Total Income Tax Paid by the Bottom 50%: $27.4 billion
>Conclusion: In other words, just one corporation (Exxon Mobil) pays as much in taxes ($27 billion) annually as the entire bottom 50% of individual taxpayers, which is 65,000,000 people!
>http://seekingalpha.com/article/63131-exxon-s-2007-tax-bill-30-billion
>
>ExxonMobile employs over 100000 people, many of which are US taxpayers.
>
>Exxon Mobile subsidizes the government not the other way around.

According to some thinkers, if government slaps you with tax lower than 100% then it means "subsidizing". Purely linguistic difference.