Aggressive, highly competitive entrepreneurs and business executives also oppose corporate welfare, which, they say, distorts the marketplace by substituting bureaucrats' amateur judgments for market forces. Worse still, American industry falls victim to the vicious circle created by government taxing and spending to "support" commercial growth. With corporate taxes high, companies lobby for give-backs to remain competitive--leading to higher taxes and a new tax-and-spend cycle.
The form of the give-backs also warrants concern. Many just don't make sense. A case in point is the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program (ATP), a perennial favorite of the Clinton administration. The administration has just proposed a 34.7 percent budget boost next year, to $260 million, with a target of $500 million by 2002.
Among the general competition awards announced last year, project after project focused on relatively late-stage applied research that, while unlikely to contribute substantial new knowledge, may advance product development for an ...
