Some people just can’t be trusted with power, including the Bay State’s senior senator.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts promised Friday she would use her position in Congress to punish companies that “heckle” her.
The moment occurred during a back-and-forth between Harvard Law’s “first woman of color” and Amazon’s Amazon News Twitter account.
“Giant corporations like Amazon report huge profits to their shareholders – but they exploit loopholes and tax havens to pay close to nothing in taxes,” the senator said earlier this week.
“That’s just not right,” Warren added, “and it’s why I’ll be introducing a bill to make the most profitable companies pay a fair share.”
Later, in response to her criticism, Amazon News responded, noting, correctly, the governing body of which Warren is a member created those tax “loopholes” in the first place.
“You make the tax laws,” the account said, “we just follow them. If you don’t like the laws you’ve created, by all means, change them. Here are the facts: Amazon has paid billions of dollars in corporate taxes over the past few years alone.”
“In 2020,” Amazon News continued, “we had another $1.7B in federal tax expense and that’s on top of the $18 billion we generated in sales taxes for states and localities in the U.S. Congress designed tax laws to encourage investment in the economy. So what have we done about that? $350B in investments since 2010 & 400K new US jobs last year alone. And while you’re working on changing the tax code, can we please raise the federal minimum wage to $15?”
Warren, who was not about to stand by idly while this tech company dared challenge her righteousness, responded in the most absurd, self-defeating way imaginable.
“I didn’t write the loopholes you exploit, [Amazon] – your armies of lawyers and lobbyists did,” she said.
Warren adds, “But you bet I’ll fight to make you pay your fair share. And fight your union-busting. And fight to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets.”
This is a positively Trumpian response. There is so much going on here that it’s difficult to know where to start. But let’s try anyway.
First, Warren admits to dereliction of duty when she claims “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” write U.S. tax law, not the U.S. Congress. If this is true, then what in the hell is the U.S. Senate, which is ultimately responsible for the passage of tax law, doing? Remember, if these laws are supposedly written by third-parties, it’s Warren and her colleagues who still vote to pass them. It’s rare that a senator tells on herself in such a blatant manner, but there you have it.
Secondly, and more importantly, Warren’s promise to “break up Big Tech” so that its employees will stop being mean to her is — well, that’s just a hell of an idea for a law professor to promote.
Heckling senators is an American tradition, as American as apple pie. More seriously, it’s our right as Americans to speak plainly, even uncharitably, to our elected officials. You would think that a former Harvard Law professor would know this. But you’d be wrong. The senator is quite clearly threatening to use her position in the federal government to ensure people cannot speak freely. She is threatening to use her position in the federal government to punish people who are mean to her online. That would be both a violation of the First Amendment and a gross abuse of power.
Even former President Donald Trump would be impressed.
