[ It’s corporate greed and the GOP will only make that worse.]
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OUR ECONOMIC CRISIS ISN’T INFLATION  
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Bernie Sanders
November 4, 2022
Fox News
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_ It’s corporate greed and the GOP will only make that worse. _

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Gage Skidmore

 

As we enter the final week of the midterm election, voters are
expressing deep concern about the state of the economy and inflation.
[[link removed]] They should. 

Today, we live in an economy in which the billionaires are getting
much richer while working families fall further behind. Unbelievably,
while 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, we now
have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the
history of our country – with three multi-billionaires owning more
wealth than the bottom half of Americans.  While employers squeeze
workers and their unions for cuts to health care and other benefits,
the CEOs of major corporations now make nearly 400 times more than
their average employees – the largest employer-worker gap in our
history. 

During this campaign, my Republican colleagues talk a lot about
inflation, and they are right to do so. Over the last year, Americans
have become sick and tired of paying outrageously high prices for
food, gas, health care, prescription drugs, housing and other
necessities. 

Unfortunately, most Republicans completely ignore the underlying
causes of inflation and the few "solutions" they do offer would make a
bad situation even worse.  

Yes. During this political season it is easy to blame President Joe
Biden and Democrats
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that’s just not accurate. 

Let’s be clear. Inflation is not unique to America. It is an
international crisis. In the European Union, inflation is nearly 11%.
In Germany, it is 11.6%. In the United Kingdom it is 10.1%. In
Ireland, it’s 9.6%. In America, it’s 8.2%, much too high, but
lower than it is throughout much of Europe.  

The truth is that inflation is, to a significant extent, caused by the
ongoing global pandemic, the break in international supply chains and
the horrific war in Ukraine. But there is another major reason for
inflation that too few people talk about. And that is the
unprecedented level of corporate greed that we are now seeing. 

According to a recent study, nearly 54% of the rise in inflation is
directly attributable to the astronomical increase in corporate profit
margins. In America today, while the working class struggles to put
food on the table, fill up their gas tanks
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corporate profits are at a 70-year-high.  

If you want to know why you are paying $4, $5, $6 for a gallon of gas,
you should know that the profits of ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and Shell
skyrocketed by 169% so far this year to $125 billion. These four huge
oil companies are spending over $73 billion not to reduce gas prices
at the pump but to buy back their own stock and increase dividends to
their wealthy stockholders. 

If you are wondering why you are paying 43% more for an airline ticket
this year, you should know that profits are up 186% at American
Airlines and 99% at United Airlines in the third quarter to nearly
$1.5 billion. Yes. These are the same companies that received taxpayer
assistance of more than $20 billion during the pandemic while cutting
6,400 jobs. 

If you are wondering why global food prices skyrocketed by over 33%
last year and are expected to go up another 23% this year, you should
know that billionaires in the global food and agri-business industry
became $382 billion richer during the pandemic. 

If you are wondering why we continue to pay, by far, the highest
prices in the world for prescription drugs, you should know that
Pfizer has increased its profits by 42% so far this year to $26.4
billion. 

Even though inflation is an international problem, my Republican
colleagues want to blame rising prices on Democratic spending –
especially the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed in March
2021. Well, before you accept that argument, I urge you to remember
where we were at that terrible and painful moment in American
history. 

As the worst pandemic in modern history raged across the country, over
3,000 Americans were dying from COVID-19 every single day and
millions, including many with inadequate health insurance, were
getting sick. Doctors and nurses lacked adequate personal protective
equipment and many hospitals, flooded with COVID-19 patients, were on
the verge of collapse.  

Further, as a result of the pandemic, in early 2021 the United States
was suffering its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Twenty-four million Americans were unemployed, under-employed or had
given up looking for work. Hunger in America was at its highest level
in decades. Millions of Americans were in danger of being evicted from
their homes. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses all over the
country were on the verge of going bankrupt. 

As the chairman of the Budget Committee, I apologize to no one for
helping to pass this bill in the Senate – without one Republican
vote. At a time of an unprecedented health and economic crisis caused
by the pandemic, the American Rescue Plan did exactly what a
democratic government in a civilized society is supposed to do:
respond to the needs of people living in fear and desperation.  

I apologize to no one that we provided every working class American
and their children with a $1,400 direct payment to get them through
the economic crisis they were experiencing.  

I apologize to no one that we extended unemployment benefits and
provided an extra $300 a week to Americans who had lost their jobs. 

I apologize to no one that we expanded the Child Tax Credit that
provided $300 a month per child to working families so that parents
could raise their kids with a modicum of security.  

I apologize to no one that we prevented hospitals from closing their
doors during the pandemic, fed the hungry, prevented evictions and
foreclosures and made sure every American could receive a COVID-19
vaccine for free. 

While Republicans continue to criticize the $1.9 trillion American
Rescue Plan that helped struggling working class families in a time of
economic desperation, it is fair to ask what they are proposing to do
if they gain control over the House and the Senate? And here’s the
answer. 

Almost all of them, from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on
down, want to provide billionaires a tax break worth up to $1.75
trillion by completely repealing the estate tax. 

The estate tax only applies to the wealthiest of the wealthy, the top
one-tenth of one percent of American families who inherit over $25
million. In other words, 99.9% of Americans would not benefit at all
from the repeal of the estate tax. 

If the estate tax was repealed, Elon Musk’s family would receive a
tax break of up to $80 billion alone. Now, I don’t know who Musk’s
kids are and I have nothing against them. I wish them well. But they
don’t deserve a tax break of up to $80 billion. 

How would Republicans pay for this $1.75 trillion tax break to
billionaires? They would pay for it by making massive cuts to Social
Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This year, the 158-member Republican
Study Committee in the House proposed cutting Medicare by $2.8
trillion and Social Security by $729 billion. An increasing number of
Republicans have even threatened to default on our nation’s debt
unless they are able to enact cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
How absurd is that?  

No. You don’t reduce inflation by giving tax breaks to billionaires
and cutting benefits for the elderly, the sick, the children and the
poor.  

You combat inflation by taking on corporate greed and passing a
windfall profits tax. You combat inflation by taking on the power of
the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry,
the giant food companies and lowering the outrageously high costs of
healthcare, prescription drugs, gas and groceries.  

As the longest serving Independent in congressional history, I’m not
going to tell you that Democrats are perfect. Far from it. In a Senate
evenly divided 50-50, there are at least two Democrats who have made
it clear that they are more interested in protecting corporate
interests than the needs of working-class families. That has got to
change. 

Right now, more than any time in modern history, we need a Congress
that has the courage to take on the wealthy campaign contributors,
super-PACs, and lobbyists who work overtime in protecting the
interests of billionaires and corporate interests. And that is
precisely what Democrats must do if they expand their majority in the
House and the Senate. 

Bernie Sanders is an independent who represents Vermont in the U.S.
Senate. 

* inflation
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* corporate greed
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* Bernie Sanders
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