End price-gouging, pass a Windfall Profits Tax!
Petition to Congress:
We urge you to stop the corporate price gouging that has driven inflation by passing a Windfall Profits Tax.
Corporate profiteering has led to price hikes hurting everyday Americans at the grocery store, pharmacy, department stores, online retailers, and everywhere else. America’s largest corporations and their CEOs used so-called "inflation" as a pretext to jack up prices and make life harder for families just trying to buy groceries.
A CNN headline from earlier this year actually read, "Corporations are keeping food expensive because, well, they can."1 And that’s exactly it. CEOs get rich. Corporations rake in record profits. And the American people suffer with larger bills and price tags. Congress must take action to punish corporations for this pure, predatory greed.
Sign the petition: Tell Congress to pass a Windfall Profits Tax to tax corporations for the excess profits they’ve raked in at the expense of the American people.
Demand Progress has been arguing for months that this corporate price gouging disguised as "inflation" has been the main cause of soaring prices for groceries, gas, and other essential items. It’s time for Congress to act.
Corporations like Chevron, Amazon, Nike, and Chipotle saw their profits go up by an average of 48 percent from 2020 to 2022 — while workers' wages rose by a pitiful 1.6% during the same time frame.2
Retail giants like Kroger and Autozone saw double digit profit increases while continuously charging customers more. American corporations on the whole have recorded their widest profit margins since the 1950s, all while working families are struggling to keep up with rising costs.3
Congress can do something about this corporate greed. Lawmakers can pass a Windfall Profits Tax to discourage price gouging by taxing mega-corporations on profits made above their average pre-pandemic profits.
Add your name: Congress must put corporations and CEOs in check with a Windfall Profits Tax.
Sources:
- CNN, "Corporations are keeping food expensive because, well, they can,” March 8, 2023.
- Guardian, "Revealed: top US corporations raising prices on Americans even as profits surge,” April 27, 2022.
- Bloomberg News, "US Corporate Profits Soar With Margins at Widest Since 1950,” August 25, 2022.