Democratic socialist Senator Bernie
Sanders is tired of government handouts. Sanders is seeking to
finally end entitlement bailout programs for corporations which help
them keep worker wages at starvation levels while the American
taxpayer is left holding the bill. Last month Sanders introduced
legislation that would tax corporations with 500 or more employees a
100 percent tax on the amount of government benefits received by
their workers. Congressman Ro Khanna had already introduced a similar
bill in the House last summer. Since then Sanders has been on a
tear criticizing big corporations in a PR campaign that seems to be
yielding results.
Corporate welfare
The introduced
bill is titled the Stop
Bezos ACT, which is a jab at Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos who has
often been criticized for consistently paying rock bottom starvation
wages to his workers, forcing them to seek government benefits in
order to make ends meet. Despite being a $1 trillion company the
corporation has thousands
of workers who are currently relying on food stamps to survive
due to their low pay. Amazon and other similar low-paying large
corporations are essentially being subsidized by taxpayer money to
allow them to pay workers literal starvation wages, all the while
making extremely large profits for themselves, executives and
shareholders.
Corporations fear the Bern
It turns out Bezos
was listening to Sanders and that he is afraid of the brewing
progressive movement focusing on the rights and interests of workers
over corporations. After continued criticism from Sanders following
the introduction of the bill which names Bezos via acronym in the
bill's title, Amazon announced, due
to the political pressure, it is raising its minimum wage to $15
per hour. Amazon is also calling on other large corporate employers
to follow suit.
McDonald's is
next
Shortly after
Amazon announced that it is succumbing to political pressure to raise
its minimum wage Sanders immediately continued his tireless efforts
on behalf of the interests of workers. Sanders is now calling on
McDonald's
to follow suit and raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour just like
Amazon has done. McDonald's, like most other corporations which
benefitted from President Donald Trump's corporate giveaway plan,
known as the GOP
tax cut plan, used most of the tax cut money on stock
buybacks and dividends for shareholders. “If McDonald's can
afford to give its shareholders $7.7 billion, it can afford to pay
all of its workers $15 an hour,” wrote Sanders in a letter
to McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook.
