Former Vice President Joe Biden can add Amazon to the list of enemies he's been making on his 2020 presidential campaign. As respectfully as he could, Biden called out the tech giant on Twitter for supposedly not paying its fair share of taxes.
I have nothing against Amazon, but no company pulling in billions of dollars of profits should pay a lower tax rate than firefighters and teachers. We need to reward work, not just wealth. https://t.co/R6xaN3vXGT
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 13, 2019
The company did not let his accusation go unanswered.
We’ve paid $2.6B in corporate taxes since 2016. We pay every penny we owe. Congress designed tax laws to encourage companies to reinvest in the American economy. We have. $200B in investments since 2011 & 300K US jobs. Assume VP Biden’s complaint is w/ the tax code, not Amazon. https://t.co/uPUv1Tzlma
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) June 13, 2019
Boom roasted!
Of course, Biden is not the first Democrat to pick a fight with Amazon. Progressive freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was seemingly largely responsible for running Amazon out of Long Island City, Queens earlier this year. The company chose New York and northern Virginia after a months long process of vetting dozens of applicants for its HQ2 campaign. It was welcome news for New York City, and even leaders like Gov. Andrew Cuomo were ecstatic about the incoming jobs and revenue. Yet, AOC started complaining about all the subsidies New York was going to have to shell out for Amazon, and before you know it the company said no thanks, packed up its stuff, along with thousands of jobs, and said it was moving elsewhere.
The joke may be on Ocasio-Cortez, though, because Amazon is reportedly eyeing other addresses in New York.
Biden hasn't had the best couple of weeks, having managed to anger both the moderate and progressive wings of his party. He just can't seem to decide which side of the debate he's on with several hot button issues.