John,

In the five years since the passage of the Trump-GOP tax cuts, corporations have spent $4.2 trillion of their new-found wealth on stock buybacks—money that could have been used to raise workers’ wages, invest in workplace protections and public safety, and lower costs for consumers.

Stock buybacks mostly enrich top corporate executives and other wealthy shareholders. That’s because about 90% of all corporate stock is owned by the richest 10% of Americans; over half is owned by the top 1%. Moreover, the boost in share prices caused by stock buybacks are not taxed unless the investor sells the underlying shares. Often the shares are never sold and the gain is never taxed.

In 2017, the year before the Trump Tax scam took effect, corporations spent $519 billion on stock buybacks. In 2022, stock buybacks more than doubled, reaching a record high $1.2 trillion.

Not surprisingly, some of the worst corporate actors that utilize stock buybacks are also price gougers and union busters. Instead of using their tax breaks and record profits to raise wages and invest in their workforces, greedy price gouging and/or union-busting corporations are enriching executives and wealthy shareholders.

Now, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have introduced the Stock Buyback Accountability Act of 2023 to place a 4% tax on stock buybacks to discourage corporations from inflating their stock price and allowing investors to avoid taxes, and to encourage corporations to invest in workers, not wealthy CEOs and shareholders.

Click “START WRITING” to send a message to your senators right now and urge them to become co-sponsors of the newly introduced Stock Buyback Accountability Act of 2023 to hold greedy corporations accountable.

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Thank you,

LeftNet