Dear John,

This week, I testified before the Senate Budget Committee to discuss the outrage that mega-corporations are raising their prices -- even as their profit margins reach their highest level in 70 years. And I endorsed a windfall profits tax to address this blatant price gouging.

Lindsey Graham told me he “couldn’t disagree with me more.” Hmm. You know who doesn’t disagree? Everyday Americans.

In fact, the latest polls show that 82% of voters now agree that one of the main reasons prices are going up is because big corporations are choosing to jack up prices and pass higher costs to consumers while making record profits.

Last year Big Oil spent $38 billion on stock buybacks, a process that manipulates stock prices to enrich shareholders and wealthy CEOs. This year, thanks in part to Putin, oil giants are planning to spend at least another $22 billion to buy back even more.

This is a direct redistribution of wealth from consumers paying through the nose at the gas pump to Big Oil CEOs, and it’s why I endorsed a windfall profits tax. Please join me in calling on Congress to pass this tax, and hold corporations accountable for profiteering at a time when working Americans are struggling to get by.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has introduced a windfall profits tax on big oil companies that would tax half the difference between their current profits and their average profits between 2015 and 2019, and then remit the proceeds to Americans in quarterly payments.

That’s right, if we can pass the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax, you’ll get a monthly check -- an immediate rebate from corporate price gouging -- that goes directly into your pocket instead of the pockets of some of the richest CEOs in the world.

The bill would tax profits, not revenues, so companies that raise their prices for legitimate reasons related to rising expenses would not be taxed. But companies that have chosen to raise their prices far and above what they’re paying for supplies or wage hikes -- often to buy back their shares of stock and further enrich their CEOs and wealthy shareholders -- would pay the windfall profits tax.

Join me in calling on Congress to pass a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies now. Americans hit hardest by rising prices need relief, and this is our chance to make it happen.

Big Oil profiteering should be illegal -- and a windfall profits tax is the best immediate way to deal with it.

Thank you for supporting this fight today.

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action