Cypress' T.J. Rodgers' attack on 'corporate welfare' supported

Electronic News, July 14, 1997 by Gale Bradley

Recently, at Cypress headquarters here, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) stood arm-in-arm with Silicon Valley executive VPs from Advanced Micro Devices, LSI Logic, Seagate Technology, Sun Microsystems and others--the companies' CEOs could not make it--and announced new policy initiatives for opposing "corporate welfare." A veritable "new boy network" of about 80 high-tech capitalists and chief executives signed off on Mr. Rodgers' written testimony to the Senate weeks before.

Sen. Brownback publicly proposed just what Mr. Rodgers had lobbied for: an independent, non-partisan commission to gather a list of industry subsidies and vote whether each should continue. The commission borrows heavily from the military's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) group of recent years; such a decision-making body is generally looked-upon as more effective because its members have no voter interests to protect.

In the pamphlet addressing the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring and The District of Columbia, which is part of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Mr. Rodgers presents his argument that any benefit wrought by federal programs assisting the semiconductor and related industries is consistently overshadowed by the amount of money it requires taking from corporations and citizens.

The 35 percent of national output taken through federal, state and local taxes is categorically unacceptable, the Cypress leader tells audiences wherever he goes, as he presents example after extreme example of misguided tax fund largesse. Mr. Rodgers also lay forth the problems he sees with full-time special interest organizations continually grappling for the same money even when the people whom they represent disagree.

"CEOs know that cutting corporate subsidies would have an immediate and lasting positive effect on the economy," Sen. Brownback said in a statement. The event served "as a rejoinder to the argument that corporate America universally supports business subsidy programs, including those administered by the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program."

That the Republican Senator from Kansas refers directly to Commerce's ATP may be an indicator that his Silicon Valley visit is motivated by partisan politics, more so than Mr. Rodgers might have it. The ATP is perceived as a Clinton/Gore Administration success, with its concentration on high economic potential projects and private sector partnering.

In two weeks, a very similar group to the 80 or so men who endorsed Mr. Rodgers' corporate welfare testimony will in the same way back up a call from Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to eliminate the capital gains tax.