Monday, December 24, 2007

Its "Pay To Play" For Giuliani, Corporate Welfare Is His Game

Rudy may like to talk tough to his fans but behind the scenes he coddles his favorite companies with generous tax breaks. Poor people should always pay their dues, but if you want to fork over a large donation to Rudy's campaign then you can get whatever you want. This is business as usual for Giuliani, nothing that isn't to be expected.

From The Daily News:

The News examined seven mega-corporations that won Giuliani tax breaks and are among his top donors.

The seven companies are: the Mercantile Exchange, Credit Suisse/First Boston, Merrill Lynch, Ernst & Young, Fidelity Investments, Citigroup/Travelers/Smith Barney and Bear Stearns.

In 1994, the Mercantile Exchange got a plateful of city and state tax breaks worth $183.9 million in a deal brokered by Giuliani and then-Gov. Mario Cuomo. The deal required the exchange to keep 8,100 jobs in the city, but new jobs were not required to collect the benefit.

Today, Richard Schaeffer, chairman of the exchange, is a major Giuliani fund-raiser who says he has raised "hundreds of thousands of dollars" for Giuliani as an individual and not for any potential benefit to the exchange.


Oh as an individual he might not benefit...directly that is. It doesn't take a mensa genius or a rocket scientist to figure out that people like Schaeffer make his money from the corporations that got fed from the city teat care of Mayor Giuliani. Rudy got to look good back then for a small price as Mayor and now to be partially bankrolled by some of New York's largest corporate goons.

Expect more of the same from Rudy, whether in his business or if, god forbid, he made it to the White House.