I wonder how Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren are sleeping at night?
These two progressives have a long history of going after financial “loopholes” that have been used by the wealthy in our country as well as corporations that figure out how to do an end run around paying their fair share.
But now Sanders and Warren are voting for the Inflation Reduction Act even though the Senate has taken out interest tax provisions in it that are focused on billionaires.
The bill used to have a social spending and tax measure which was scaled back from the initial “Build Back Better” bill. This measure used to amount to $3 trillion-plus. But after intense negotiations, that part of the bill is gone.
The new measure spends $433 billion and would raise $739 billion in revenue, according to Democrats.
Sanders and Warren voted in favor of the legislation that was formed by the new agreement between West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Along with Sanders and Warren, they have a history of criticizing tax loopholes that have been used by the rich in America, and this included the carried interest loophole that was taken out of the bill.
In fact, Sanders and Warren, along with six others, originally co-sponsored the Carried Interest Fairness Act in 2015. This legislation introduced to the Senate would have closed the carried interest loophole for good.
Just last September, Sanders was harping on this issue during the negotiations regarding the budget reconciliation bill. He claims that the measure would “end the days of tax loopholes and evasions” that are used by billionaires.
Sanders and Warren Support Inflation Reduction Act With No Provisions for Billionaires
“Let me be as clear as I can be. The budget reconciliation bill is PAID FOR. How will that happen? We will finally end the days of tax loopholes and evasions by the billionaire class of this country. “Yes, they will finally pay their fair share of taxes,” Sanders wrote in a tweet.
Just before he announced his second bid for the presidency in 2019, Sanders talked a lot about the “rigged tax code” in America. He lashed out at the way wealthy Americans have dodged the right level of tax percentages.
“We have a rigged tax code that has essentially legalized tax-dodging for large corporations and the world’s wealthiest individuals. It is time to end these egregious loopholes and make the wealthy pay their fair share,” Sanders wrote in a January 2019 tweet.
The Vermont senator lashed out at former President Donald Trump in 2018 saying that the former president failed to live up to a campaign promise to go after an “egregious carried interest loophole,” and that his “disgraceful tax bill did nothing to address it.”
Warren has made a name for herself on this issue as well. She parroted much of what Sanders was saying and has called out wealthy Americans like Elon Musk. She also has gone after corporations like Amazon.
“Loopholes, deductions, exemptions. There are lots of benefits to being a corporation like Amazon – which made over $10 billion in profits and paid $0 in federal corporate income taxes last year,” Warren tweeted in June of 2019. This was during her run for the presidency.
Earlier, she wrote in a 2017 tweet that “real tax reform would close up loopholes for the rich [and] put working families first.”
So let me ask again, after voting for the Inflation Reduction Act, how are these two outspoken politicians sleeping at night?
Maybe they are sleeping now because neither of their offices is making any comments about their vote.
