he spoke about three policy areas that are pretty far from corporate
welfare. First, he spoke about "oil subsidies."
There are some oil subsidies in federal law, and Obama is correct that
they should be ended. But most of the "oil subsidies" Obama points to
are broad-based tax deductions that oil companies also happen to get .
I wrote last year about Democratic rhetoric on this issue: "tax
provisions that treat oil companies like other companies become a
'giveaway,' while a bill setting higher taxes for only five companies
counts as fairness."
Second, Obama picked on "corporate jets." Again, there's no big
giveaway to corporate jets. Instead, some jets are depreciated over
five years and others are depreciated over seven years. I explained it
last year.
When it comes to actual corporate welfare for corporate jets, the
Obama administration wants to ramp it up — his Export-Import Bank
chief has explicitly stated he wants to subsidize more corporate-jet
sales.
Finally, Obama rolled out the canard about tax breaks for "companies
that ship jobs overseas." Romney was right to fire back that this tax
break doesn't exist. Instead, all ordinary business expenses are
deductible — that is, you are only taxed on profits,
which are revenues minus expenses. And how much money would Obama
raise with his targeted tax hike? Less than one penny of every $100
collected in corporate income tax.
So, when Obama says "corporate welfare," he really means "unpopular
businesses being treated equally."