Between The Lines - Sarah Anderson: Corporate CEOs Advocating Austerity Policies Receive Millions in Taxpayer Subsidized Stock Options (Week Ending May 17, 2013)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

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JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

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Corporate CEOs Advocating Austerity Policies Receive Millions in Taxpayer-Subsidized Stock Options

RealAudio MP3

Posted May 8, 2013

Interview with Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies' Global Economy project director, conducted by Scott Harris. Transcript provided by Evan Bieder.

Since late in 2012, a group known as Fix the Debt Campaign, led by private equity billionaire Pete Peterson, has advocated for deep cuts in the federal budget while protecting tax breaks for corporations and the rich. Among the targets of the $60 million campaign, are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. While the objectives of the corporate-backed campaign have not yet succeeded, the group has exerted influence on the national debate where Congressional budget negotiations are focused on the Republican and conservative austerity agenda of slashing popular social safety net programs.

Now a new report titled, "‘Fix the Debt’ CEOs Enjoy Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay,” just released by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Campaign for America's Future, finds that Fix The Debt CEOs are pocketing massive taxpayer subsidies at the same time they're advocating deep cut in government programs that benefit ordinary citizens.

The report details how during the three-year period 2009 to 2011, the 90 publicly held corporate members of “Fix the Debt” paid their top CEOs $6.3 billion, of which taxpayers footed the bill through subsidies for $953 million to as much as $1.6 billion of these compensation packages. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with the report’s co-author Sarah Anderson, IPS Global Economy project director. Here Anderson explains why she believes Fix the Debt’s members' conduct in taking massive taxpayer subsidies, should undercut the credibility of their campaign calling for deep budget cuts that demand sacrifice from average Americans.

SARAH ANDERSON: Well, I should probably first explain what Fix the Debt is. So, this is this corporate lobby group that came together last fall to try to influence the whole debate around the so-called fiscal cliff. And we took notice of them right away and saw that they needed a lot of scrutiny because they're a very heavily funded group. They said their initial budget was $60 million; they've recruited big name CEOs from large U.S. companies and they project an image of patriotism and shared sacrifice; they're just really in this budget debate because they want to act responsibly and make sure our nation's economy is safe and sound. But when you look at the details of what they're actually promoting, it's disturbing. They're pushing for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and when you look at their tax proposals, they're all about getting more tax breaks for large corporations like the ones they run.

We've done a series of studies scrutinizing Fix the Debt, who they are and what they're calling for. This latest one looks at their executive pay practices and points out that ordinary taxpayers are actually subsidizing CEO pay at big companies like the ones that are leading the Fix the Debt campaign. And that's because companies can deduct an unlimited amount from their income taxes for executive pay as long as it's performance based. So all of the stock options, and performance bonuses and stock that are shoveled into the pockets of these big CEOs are fully deductible, creating this perverse incentive. What it means is that the more these corporations pay their CEOs, the lower their tax burden. And that just contributes to our national debt.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Sarah, give us the overall picture of how these large corporations that are part of the Fix the Debt coalition wanting to suffocate a lot of other government programs, use tax loopholes and a lot of high-priced accountants to prevent the government from taxing CEO pay.

SARAH ANDERSON: Yes. So under the U.S. tax code, you're only supposed to be able to deduct from corporate income taxes a million dollars per executive for executive pay. Beyond that, it's considered not a reasonable business expense. The problem is there's this huge loophole so that you can deduct unlimited amounts as long as the pay is performance-based. And so, when they made that tax reform, it opened the door for massive payouts of stock options and performance bonuses, anything they could call "performance-based" then was fully deductible. And it's really part of the reason why we've seen this explosion of CEO pay in the past couple of decades.

The people in Fix the Debt are probably no worse at taking advantage of this loophole than many other big Fortune 500 companies, but let me just give a couple of examples. The guy who got the most in performance pay that was fully deductible in the period we were looking at was the CEO of UnitedHealth group. They're the biggest HMO in the country and their CEO, Stephen Hemsley took in about $194 million in performance pay in the years 2009-2011. And that works out to be about a $68 million tax break for UnitedHealth Group and that is just for one individual CEO's pay.

It is outrageous particularly because these guys are out there telling the rest of us that we need to "tighten our belts," we really need to "cut back" on earned benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare programs that many people rely on very heavily. And yet, they haven't taken a look at the many ways that the corporations that they're running have been contributing to the deficit by taking advantage of these outrageous loopholes. If they were really serious about dealing with the deficit, they would be looking for these loopholes to be closed.

BETWEEN THE LINES: As you look at fixing this loophole, what kinds of congressional action would be necessary to prevent these companies from having taxpayers subsidize what many would label as obscene CEO pay by some of these major corporations?

SARAH ANDERSON: Well, it’s a very simple fix. As I mentioned, there is a cap on the deductibility of payments that companies make for executive compensation. It’s set at $1 million, except there’s this huge loophole for performance pay. If we got rid of that loophole, that would at least be one step towards ensuring that ordinary taxpayers are not subsidizing this runaway CEO pay. Congresswoman Barbara Lee has a bill on the House side that’s even better than that. It would lower the cap to $500,000 and do away with the performance pay loophole. That’s one reform that I think is just a total no-brainer. You’d get much bigger numbers in terms of increased corporate revenues if you went after some of the other loopholes like the ones that have been encouraging the use of tax havens. There you’re talking about really mind-boggling amounts of money; I think something like $100 billion a year, every year. That’s another big front in the corporate tax reform that should be getting a lot more attention.

For more information on the Global Economy project with the Institute for Policy Studies, visit ips-dc.org/globaleconomy.