Corporate profits are out of control while American consumers suffer. 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. Corporations have seen record profits over the last two years and instead of lowering prices to help consumers they’ve invested in stock buybacks to enrich their shareholders. A Windfall Profit Tax would target this greed-driven practice and Congress needs to step up and join with President Biden to get it passed.
Last week, President Biden called out corporations for price gouging. He told corporations who were keeping prices high to make their shareholders and CEOs even richer that it was time to “give American consumers a break.”1
Starting with the pandemic and continuing with companies using inflation as an excuse to keep raising prices, corporate profiteering has led to price hikes hurting everyday Americans at the grocery store, pharmacy, department stores, online retailers, and across the economy.
America’s largest corporations and their CEOs blamed so-called “inflation” as a pretext to jack up prices and make life harder for families just trying to buy groceries. Corporations keep raking in record profits with yet another quarter of corporate profits increasing2 while Americans struggle to pay for rising grocery bills and afford higher prices. 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.
Corporations across the economy like Chevron, Amazon, Nike, Chipotle, and many others 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.3
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.4
A White House official said: “The president will aggressively use the bully pulpit to call out the fact that some companies are not passing on savings to American consumers. Some companies are keeping margins very high and his view is that some of those savings should be passed on.”5
A Windfall Profits Tax would discourage price gouging by taxing mega-corporations on profits made above their average profits during the five years before the pandemic. First introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders, President Biden has also publicly supported the measure. Now we need Congress to take action to make it a reality.
Add your name: Congress must put corporations and CEOs in check with a Windfall Profits Tax.
Sources:
- CNBC, “‘Stop the price gouging’: Biden hits corporations over high consumer costs,” November 27, 2023.
- Ibid.
- The Guardian, “Revealed: top US corporations raising prices on Americans even as profits surge,” Apil 27, 2022.
- Bloomberg News, “US Corporate Profits Soar With Margins at Widest Since 1950,” August 25, 2022.
- CNBC, “‘Stop the price gouging’: Biden hits corporations over high consumer costs,” November 27, 2023.