Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to restore the World War II era windfall profit tax.
The office of Sen. Sanders provided the details in a statement to PoliticusUSA:
With working families across the country increasingly bearing the brunt of growing economic pain and inequality – amidst the conflict in Ukraine, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and spiking prices of critical necessities – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday introduced legislation in the Senate that would impose a 95 percent windfall tax on the excess profits of major companies. A temporary emergency measure, Sanders’ Ending Corporate Greed Act could raise an estimated $400 billion in one year from 30 of the largest corporations alone and would apply only in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
This would not be the first time the United States implemented a windfall profits tax. Sanders’ legislation is modeled after the broad-based windfall profits tax implemented by the U.S. during the first and second World Wars and the Korean War. During World War II, the tax rate reached as high as 95 percent, which ensured that companies could not profiteer off the war. The U.S. also enacted a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies as recently as the mid-1980s.
Sen. Sanders said, “We cannot allow big oil companies and other large, profitable corporations to continue to use the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the specter of inflation to make obscene profits by price gouging Americans at the gas pump, the grocery store, or any other sector of our economy. During these troubling times, the working class cannot bear the brunt of this economic crisis, while corporate CEOs, wealthy shareholders, and the billionaire class make out like bandits. The time has come for Congress to work for working families and demand that large, profitable corporations make a little bit less money and pay their fair share of taxes.”
Any company that is profiteering, think Big Oil, off of the Russian invasion of Ukraine would be subject to the tax. The Sanders bill is a fast way to stop big corporations from keeping inflation high through their profiteering.
As Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Sanders can get the bill through his committee and onto the Senate floor for a final vote.
Bernie Sanders is using his power in the Senate to strike back at corporate greed and help the American people.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
