In the same CNBC appearance where Joe Biden announced he was “going to beat Joe Biden,” the former vice president channeled Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by challenging retail giant Amazon to “pay its fair share.” The freshman congresswoman embarked on a one-woman campaign to force the company, which planned to open a regional headquarters in her congressional district, to look elsewhere. The mission was “successful.” Amazon scrapped its plan … which would have added 25,000 jobs to the community. Now Ocasio-Cortez’s seat is in jeopardy.
Here are Biden’s comments, which include the observation, “I don’t think any company, I don’t give a damn how big they are, the Lord almighty, should absolutely be in a position where they pay no tax and make billions and billions and billions of dollars.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
After the show, the Biden campaign took to Twitter to make sure the soundbite was preserved for posterity. Unfortunately for them, Amazon responded, writing:
Joe Biden, We pay every cent owed. You spent 3 decades in the Senate & know that Congress wrote these tax laws to encourage companies to invest in the US economy. We have. 500k jobs w/ a min wage of $15/hr across 40 states. Assume your complaint is w/ the tax code, not Amazon.
.@JoeBiden We pay every cent owed. You spent 3 decades in the Senate & know that Congress wrote these tax laws to encourage companies to invest in the US economy. We have. 500k jobs w/ a min wage of $15/hr across 40 states. Assume your complaint is w/ the tax code, not Amazon. https://t.co/bKV4Hy4Ma8
— Amazon Policy (@amazon_policy) May 22, 2020
Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 partly on the strength of the promise that he would undo many of the crippling regulations Barack Obama had imposed on American corporations, which resulted in a flat recovery from the 2008 recession. The economy enjoyed renewed prosperity under Trump’s plan and might conceivably still be going strong if it weren’t for the COVID-19 pandemic. Can Biden count on the American people to overlook that reality?
