民主党总统候选人参议员伯尼·桑德斯和伊丽莎白·沃伦都抨击联邦快递和唐纳德·特朗普总统的“企业精英”减税政策，因为他们允许快递巨头逃避任何联邦税。
进步的2020年有望者对周日做出了回应纽约时报 报告这详细说明了联邦快递如何在短短一年内将联邦税收从15亿美元降至0美元。这位企业邮件巨头利用华盛顿咄咄逼人的游说策略，誓言要增加资本投资，因为他们推动特朗普和共和党人批准他从2017年起削减1.5万亿美元的税收。桑德斯和沃伦都把特朗普和美国企业之间的亲密关系——以牺牲普通纳税人的利益为代价——作为竞选焦点。
桑德斯和沃伦强调了温和的民主党和保守派如何经常声称美国不能投资中产阶级纳税人，同时向大公司提供数万亿美元的税收减免。
“有人告诉我们，我们无力投资于我们人民需要的住房、医疗保健和教育。与此同时，大公司缴纳的联邦所得税为零。桑德斯周日早上在推特上表示:“当我们站出来对抗企业精英时，我们就能为我们的国家做出真正的改变。”。
马萨诸塞州参议员、民主党候选人沃伦周日在另一条推特上表示同意:“你缴纳的联邦所得税可能比一群赚了数十亿美元的美国大公司还要多。太下流了。这些公司喜欢挥舞美国国旗，但他们不会投入一分钱来支持我们的投资。”
这倍报告阐述了像联邦快递这样的公司如果从联邦政府获得税收收入，他们将如何从不兑现加大投资的承诺。“如果有什么不同的话，平均而言，获得最大减税的公司比获得较小减税的公司增加的资本投资要少，”作者指出。联邦快递创始人兼首席执行官弗雷德里克·史密斯在2017年声称拉里·库德洛秀如果企业获得大规模税收减免，美国将会看到“资本投资的复兴”倍揭露从未发生。
联邦快递的财务文件显示，自2017年特朗普减税法案通过以来，该公司已经节省了逾16亿美元。联邦快递在过去十年中支付了20亿美元的联邦所得税。该公司发表声明称，对他们接受如此大规模的减税进行评判是不公平的。
“联邦快递在符合加速折旧条件的资本项目上投资了数十亿美元，并为我们的员工养老金计划做出了巨大贡献，”该公司在一份声明中表示。“这些因素暂时降低了我们的联邦所得税，这是法律旨在帮助增长国民生产总值、创造就业机会和提高工资。”
桑德斯一直哀叹特朗普未能公布他的纳税申报单，并透露他可能没有缴纳联邦所得税，这证明了他的竞选团队试图打击的腐败和企业任人唯亲。
“这正是数百万美国人感到沮丧的原因。他们对这个国家腐败的政治体系感到愤怒和厌恶，”桑德斯在特朗普第一任期选举前于2016年10月说道。
联邦快递标志显示在2008年6月18日加利福尼亚州旧金山的一辆送货卡车的侧面。
SANDERS, WARREN CALL OUT FEDEX FOR PAYING $0 IN TAXES AFTER TRUMP CUTS
Democratic presidential candidates, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both blasted FedEx and President Donald Trump's "corporate elite" tax cuts for allowing the courier giant to avoid paying any federal taxes.
The progressive 2020 hopefuls responded to a Sunday New York Times report that detailed how FedEx was able to reduce their federal taxes from $1.5 billion to $0 in just one year. The corporate mail titan used aggressive Washington lobbying tactics and vowed to boost capital investment as they pushed Trump and Republicans to approve his $1.5 trillion tax cut from 2017. Sanders and Warren have both made the cozy relationship between Trump and corporate America--at the expense of the average taxpayer--a central campaign focus.
Sanders and Warren highlighted how moderate Democrats and conservatives frequently claim the U.S. can't invest in middle-class taxpayers while offering trillions of dollars in tax breaks to massive corporations.
"We're told we can't afford to invest in the housing, health care and education our people need. Meanwhile, giant corporations are paying ZERO in federal income taxes. When we stand up to the corporate elite, we can make real change for our country," Sanders remarked on Twitter Sunday morning.
Warren, the Massachusetts senator and fellow Democratic hopeful, concurred in a separate tweet Sunday: "You're probably paying more in federal income taxes than a bunch of big American corporations that make billions of dollars. It's obscene. These companies love to wave the American flag, but they won't pitch in a dime to support the investments we make."
The Times report lays out how companies like FedEx never followed through on their promise to more heavily invest if they received tax windfalls from the federal government. "If anything, the companies that received the biggest tax cuts increased their capital investment by less, on average, than companies that got smaller cuts," the authors noted. FedEx founder and chief executive Frederick Smith claimed in 2017 on The Larry Kudlow Show that the U.S. would see a "renaissance of capital investment" if corporations received massive tax breaks--something the Times revealed has never happened.
Financial filings for FedEx show the company has saved more than $1.6 billion since the Trump tax cuts were passed in 2017. FedEx has paid $2 billion in total federal income taxes over the past decade. The company issued a statement calling it unfair for them to be judged for receiving such a massive tax break.
"FedEx invested billions in capital items eligible for accelerated depreciation and made large contributions to our employee pension plans," the company said in a statement. "These factors have temporarily lowered our federal income tax, which was the law's intention to help grow G.D.P., create jobs and increase wages."
Sanders has long lamented how Trump's failure to release his tax returns and reveal that he potentially paid nothing in income federal income tax is evidence of the corruption and corporate cronyism his campaign seeks to fight.
"This is exactly why so many millions of Americans are frustrated. They're angry, they're disgusted, at what they see as a corrupt political system in this country," Sanders said in October 2016, in the lead up to Trump's first-term election.
The FedEx logo is displayed on the side of a delivery truck June 18, 2008 in San Francisco, California.
