ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

“Why is it that if you take advantage of a tax break and you’re a corporation, you’re a smart businessman — but if you take advantage of something that you need to not be hungry, you’re a moocher?�

This is not purely a partisan position.

The Tea Party movement within the Republican Party, for instance, had its roots in anger toward the Wall Street bailout in 2008. And a lot of Republicans — Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah being one of them — are fans of the expanded child tax credit that was briefly in place during the pandemic because it reduced child poverty, and, yes, fed hungry kids.

But by and large, there is often a partisan split when it comes to supporting various groups for tax benefits. Many Democrats support the concept of wiping out student college debt, for instance; many Republicans don’t want to take away massive tax breaks that benefit oil and gas companies.

And then there’s the game major corporations play when they want to expand in a city. More often than not, both parties get on board in giving away the farm.

Remember the great rush to lure Amazon’s second headquarters, with nearly every major city in America making a pitch that involved giving away hundreds of millions in tax dollars for a complex that post-pandemic isn’t really needed anymore?

So it is with the Boeing Co., and their latest pitch to expand manufacturing operations in St. Louis for a new, secretive aerospace program of some kind. Boeing is seeking about $155 million in tax benefits from St. Louis County — and maybe some more from the state of Missouri — in exchange for about $2 billion in investment and creating 500 new jobs.

For me (and I don’t have a vote), Boeing is sort of the exception that proves the rule. More often than not, I tend to think corporations that get tax dollars from governments are fleecing taxpayers. But in St. Louis, right now, when one of its biggest employers wants to expand middle-class union manufacturing jobs while expanding its local footprint, sign me up.

With one caveat. We’ll call it the Jon Stewart caveat.

Call it what it is. It’s a bailout. It’s corporate welfare. It’s wealth redistribution. It’s socialism. It’s all of those things. But so what?

Part of the problem in politics today is that words have lost so much meaning. When politicians are in favor of government handouts, they call it “investment,� and when they’re opposed, it is socialism or some other ism with a negative connotation.

Remember the Obamacare debate? In trying to oppose expansion of the nation’s health care system to help cover more poor people, Republicans called it wealth redistribution. Democrats were aghast and pushed back at the turn of a phrase. But Republicans were right. It was, and is, wealth redistribution, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Amid growing inequity, I thought Democrats should have called the GOP’s bluff. The American tax system has been redistributing wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich for decades, through tax cuts and other schemes. The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, was a tremendously successful rebalancing act.

The truth is, most political fights are really about wealth redistribution. Every tax credit fight is about wealth redistribution. Every bill offered to help poor people or seniors living on a fixed income is about wealth redistribution.

Why don’t we just call it what it is?

Rebuilding the manufacturing base in this country, for instance, will be a massive help to the middle class, and with Boeing supporting union jobs, in a city that has plenty of capacity to expand its manufacturing base, that’s a giveaway with a purpose. The corporation will scrape its cream off the top, because that’s what corporations do, but if the middle class get their share, then it might just be a good deal for St. Louis in the long run.

A couple of months ago I wrote about Andrew Crowe, an entrepreneur who is touting St. Louis as the potential Ground Zero for America’s advanced manufacturing rebirth. Crowe got his start working for one of the companies in the aerospace industry that located in St. Louis to be close to Boeing. Now he’s trying to get companies to hire more young Black men like him to help in the manufacturing rebirth.

“I truly believe St. Louis can be a case study,� he told me. “We have a population that needs jobs.�

If Boeing wins its bailout, I hope they call Crowe, who could use a little government investment, so he can help with their wealth redistribution plan.

Bottom line: Some government handouts are better than others.