Bernie Sanders and Amazon are at it again.
On Wednesday, the Independent senator from Vermont introduced a bill in the Senate called the ‘Stop BEZOS Act,’ which would require big corporations like Amazon and Walmart to pay the government for food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and other assistant programs that their workers use, according to The Washington Post.
The bill reportedly uses Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos‘ name to stand for ‘Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act.’ It would ‘establish a 100 percent tax on corporations with 500 or more employees equal to the amount of federal benefits received by their low-wage workers,’ Sanders said.
Amazon just hit the $1 trillion mark in market cap on Tuesday, the second US company to reach that benchmark after Apple. Earlier in July, Bezos became the richest person in modern history with a net worth of $150 billion.
In May, Sanders made comments regarding Bezos’ wealth and Amazon’s treatment of its warehouse workers, calling the scenario a sign of ‘a rigged economy.’ Sanders also criticized Amazon for not paying enough in taxes.
The e-commerce giant and the former presidential candidate exchanged blows again last week. Sanders criticized the company for treating its workers poorly. Amazon defended its record and claimed the Sanders presented ‘misleading and inaccurate’ allegations regarding the company’s working conditions and wages.
Sanders’ statements came after he asked Amazon employees to share their experience working for Amazon, whose warehouses, he noted, are on the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s list of most dangerous places to work in the US.
‘The wealthiest person in the world is advertising jobs that pay workers wages that are so low that they have to go on public assistance and be subsidized by the middle class of this country,’ said Sanders in a statement. ‘That’s wrong. That has got to change.’
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
