Starbucks executive chairman Howard Schultz has attacked Washington’s failure to address the nearly $21 trillion debt facing the nation, claiming that Democratic and Republican leaders have lied about the situation and failed to tackle it in the recent tax reform debate.
In a stockholders meeting Wednesday, Schultz targeted former Presidents Obama and Bush and President Trump for failing to enact broader tax reform that he said could have helped to cut the debt.
“Both parties, President Obama, President Bush and now President Trump, both members of Congress, are complicit in their reckless approach to the amount of debt. And if this was a business we’d be approaching insolvency,” he said in answering a question from Justin Danhof, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project.
He did not mention that Starbucks chief executive, Kevin Johnson, responded to the new tax cuts by raising salaries and benefits for employees.
Instead, he said Washington’s sweet tooth is a threat to younger Americans and future generations.
“The reason I said it was robbing from young people and future generations is that we are sitting today and this is factual, with an almost $21 trillion debt on the balance sheet of America,” he said.
“Secondarily, we are approaching $400 billion a year in interest expense,” he said, adding, “The debt is robbing from the existing generation of young people and future generations. The [new] corporate tax rate of 21 percent in my view was an enormous missed opportunity to do comprehensive tax reform.”
And to cheers, he concluded, “I think both parties, and this is important, both parties, including the current administration, are responsible for the years in which we have not gotten the truth and the honesty with regard to the piling on of almost $21 trillion in debt. China owns over $1 trillion of that and building an infrastructure on our money. That’s why I think it was a reckless thing to do without doing comprehensive tax reform.
Danhof put out a release on his interaction and noted the different approaches by the Starbucks chiefs.
“It seems like Howard Schultz cares more about liberal political grandstanding than the welfare of Starbucks employees,” said Danhof. “This was in stark contrast with current CEO Kevin Johnson, who told me he separates his politics from his professional duties and is committed to ‘always do the right thing for our partners, our customers and our shareholders.’ That’s a refreshing change to which we can all raise a mug.”
