FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, January 28, 2019
PRESS CONTACT:
Ryan Thomas
[email protected]
Tax March Roasts Howard Schultz for Comments on Taxes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to Howard Schultz’s comments about raising taxes on corporations, Tax March spokesperson Ryan Thomas released the following statement:
“Howard Schultz’s leadership on economic issues is as bland as his coffee, apparently. Confronting historic inequality means actually having a plan to address the widening gap between the very rich and everyone else—not supporting a watered-down version of the GOP’s failed tax law.
“Every Democratic or Independent candidate for president should not only call for repealing the GOP’s tax law, but supporting raising taxes on the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations to ensure our economy actually works for working people.”
Additional Background:
- While Schultz has said that he would have pushed for a more “modest” tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, research shows that the major tax cuts that corporations received from the Republican tax law went directly into the pockets of the wealthy, not the workers.
- Instead of pledging to raise taxes on corporations or the wealthy, Schultz has continually said that we need to decrease the national debt, which poses a fundamental threat to programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
- In just the first quarter after the Republican tax law passed, Starbucks saw a $117 million tax break. Schultz claims the company accelerated hiring plans and gave its employees raises, but in reality, hiring levels remained constant year-over-year, and the cost of those raises was nearly covered by the tax break the company received in just three months.
- In April 2018 Starbucks also announced a $5.9 billion stock buyback program—money that goes to its shareholders, like Schultz himself, not its workers.
- Recent polling indicates that a large majority of Americans—including 60 percent of independents—support raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
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