Buried within the “fiscal cliff” deal was a massive piece of Corporate Welfare for pharmaceutical giant Amgen. That’s not surprising given that the tax increases in the bill were completely offset by the Corporate Welfare stuffed into it – so a huge waste of time deficit wise. But the Amgen subsidy is causing consternation given both the amount and Amgen’s recent misconduct.

What may be unknown to many who observed the “fiscal cliff” legislative brawl is that nestled within the legislation was a smorgasbord of corporate goodies. The corporate welfare provisions within the bill received scant attention as the chief concern for most was whether or not the Republican Congress would kill the deal and plunge America off “the cliff.”

A few weeks ago, the Pennsylvania General Assembly fast-tracked a bill in the waning days of the legislative session to allow certain private companies to keep most of the state income taxes of new employees. News reports to follow indicated the new tax giveaway was designed to lure California-based software firm Oracle to State College.

Well, it turns out the CEO of Oracle, which will benefit from the largess of Pennsylvania taxpayers, recently bought his very own Hawaiian island, as CNN reported back in June.

The not-as-funny way to make the point Jon Stewart made about the Republican conception of the entitlement society and where it fails to intersect with reality comes from Simon Johnson. The true “moochers” in American life are, not surprisingly, the ones with all the political power and influence, who can grab themselves gifts and goodies from the political class.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has delivered a fairly scathing report on for-profit colleges, arguing that they have provided far more benefits for shareholders than the students that matriculate at their institutions.

You probably read (here or elsewhere) about yesterday’s mini-firestorm in the blogosphere: the report that a wealthy right-winger, Joe Ricketts, was considering a $10 million super-PAC ad campaign reviving old charges about President Obama’s supposed connections to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

You may have missed the punch line, though. The denial issued by Ricketts described him as “a fiscal conservative,” and his super-PAC is (rather ludicrously) named the “Ending Spending Action Fund.”

The Government Accountability Office took a look at the federal government crop insurance program and the result isn’t pretty. We effectively waste $1 billion a year providing corporate welfare to very large agribusiness operations.

As long as the news media devotes massive amounts of space to a fantasy budget, why can’t they turn their attention for just a minute to a more legitimate one Like last year’s CPC budget, which earned praise from the likes of Jeffrey Sachs, Paul Krugman and even The Economist, the Budget for All makes up-front investments while reducing the deficit over time by making the tax code more progressive and scaling back on defense.

The corporate welfare mantra is that U.S. taxes on business are horrible and a deterrent to locating in the U.S. at all. The actuality is that most corporations avoid taxes by a variety of activities – that include offshoring profits.

While all the major media outlets were carrying news about Rep. Weiner’s penis, the House adopted projected Agriculture Budget cuts that will seriously diminish the U.S. support for women and children if they prevail. Although there were several – well, approaching 20 – members of the right who declined to add their vote, the measure passed with one Dem. joining in the irresponsible measure to reduce spending on needy for nutrition, by support of farmers that contribute their products and are repaid.