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This article argues in favor of the elimination of so-called corporate welfare, or subsidies given to businesses by the federal government, in the United States. A forthcoming paper by Stephen Slivinski of the Cato Institute lists $87 billion of corporate welfare in this year's budget. And corporate-welfare spending is growing, and has increased by 30 percent since 1997. Different groups had different views on corporate welfare. Conservatives argued that most tax breaks could not be counted as welfare. According to them, letting companies keep more of their profits was not the same as giving them taxpayers' money. Since 1995, opponents of corporate welfare have tried to eliminate the Advanced Technology Program. U.S. President George W. Bush wants to eliminate the program, but so far his proposal is going nowhere.

The article discusses the establishment of the Council on Competitiveness, chaired by U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle, to continue the deregulatory efforts of the Reagan Administration. One of its primary goals was to assess the effects of deregulation. In 1991, a paper was drafted and positioned to become a key element of the administration's economic agenda. Its release was delayed and Jim Tozzi, formerly of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, notes that a lot of the substance discussing a course of action seems to have been stricken. By the time of its release, little enthusiasm for its contents remained.