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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont suggested on Friday night that Democrats could levy a onetime tax on corporations that have profited off inflation as a way to fight rising costs.
Speaking at a rally hosted by NextGen America in Las Vegas, Sanders also accused Republicans who are criticizing Democratic politics for fueling inflation of ‘lying.’
It was one of three events Sanders headlines in Nevada on Friday. The Senate seat there, held by Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, is among the most competitive of the whole 2022 election cycle.
It could also be the critical race to decide which party controls the Senate for the latter half of President Joe Biden‘s term.
Sanders has for months urged Democrats to focus more on inflation while on the campaign trail – an issue that has been silently clobbering them in the polls amid an avalanche of Republican attacks.
The tactic was on full display Friday night when he urged his progressive audience to get out and vote for Cortez Masto, who is being challenged by a Donald Trump-endorsed candidate named Adam Laxalt.
‘She is doing a hell of a job in Nevada. Let’s see that she returns to Washington,’ Sanders said to applause. ‘But what we’re dealing with is not just people trying to undermine democracy, not just people trying to take away a woman’s right to control her own body, not just the issue of climate change, etc.’
‘What we are dealing with right now is an economy which is failing the working class of this country.’
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders held three rallies in Nevada on Friday as part of a multi-state swing during the final sprint of the midterms
He suggested that one way to fight inflation that people are ‘struggling’ with would be a one-time tax on record corporate profits during the pandemic
He’s pictured shaking hands and taking photos with voters after the Friday night speech
Americans have been dealing with decades-high inflation rates for much of the year, and it shows no signs of significantly slowing. While September’s inflation data indicated a slight drop in inflation from the month prior, it also showed that core inflation – stickier costs that exclude volatile food and energy prices – rose by a 40-year high of over 6 percent.
But Sanders rejected the notion that today’s high cost of living is due to Biden’s spending bills – in particular, the COVID-era American Rescue Plan.
Multiple economics experts have suggested that Biden’s stimulus bill and the initial one passed under Trump are much to blame for the state of the economy.
‘My Republican colleagues, all over this country, and they’re saying, you know, inflation is caused by Joe Biden, by Bernie Sanders, by others who passed the American Rescue Plan,’ Sanders said. ‘Well, you know what, they’re lying.’
He echoed Democrats’ oft-used defense that inflation has been a worldwide trend.
‘Inflation in many countries is higher than in the United States, because the causes of inflation are global,’ Sanders said.
‘They have to do with the pandemic, and the breakdown of supply chains. They have to do with the terrible, terrible disruptive war in Ukraine, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.’
He added, ‘And I want to tell you what else inflation has to do: It has everything to do with corporate greed.’
Sanders denounced Republicans – and some financial experts – blaming President Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus bill for today’s rising costs
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, rose by its highest level in 40 years
Sanders accused energy and pharmaceutical companies of price gouging while millions of Americans were left vulnerable by the pandemic – and suggested that the Democrat-controlled Congress could pass a onetime fee to punish them.
‘Think about the moral aspect, of in the midst of all the crises, we’re facing, they’re saying we can raise prices sky high and nobody will notice,’ the senator said.
‘Well, I noticed, and that is why I think we’re going to impose a windfall profits tax on them.’
Such a tax would have virtually no chance of passing under a Republican-controlled Congress.
And the unfavorable projections for Democrats plus the closes races around the country have their supporters worried.
‘I honestly think like, to be quite frank, like, the Democratic messaging has been terrible,’ Zee Cohen Sanchez, 31, told DailyMail.com.
Sanchez, who runs a campaigning company, said Sanders had brought a new ‘energy’ to revitalize the party but said Democrats have since ‘squandered’ that momentum.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., center, casts her vote at a polling place on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022, in Las Vegas. She’s regarded as one of the most vulnerable Democrats of the 2022 election cycle
Adam Laxalt is in the race with an endorsement from Donald Trump. Trump said of the Republican former attorney general, ‘He fought valiantly against the Election Fraud, which took place in Nevada. He is strong on Secure Borders and defending America against the Radical Left. Adam has my Complete and Total Endorsement!’
She told DailyMail.com that she wanted to hear more from her party about inflation and abortion rights.
‘People just aren’t showing up because they don’t believe anymore. And we can change it, like the Democrats can change the messaging,’ the activist offered.
‘Right now. It’s just like, don’t vote for them, don’t vote for Republicans. That’s not enough.’
Joshua Mathisen, 18, a Las Vegas university student and former NextGen America volunteer, said he was ‘nervous’ about the battleground state Senate race being so close, given Laxalt’s more fringe positions.
The former Republican attorney general of Nevada has previously expressed support for states’ jurisdiction over abortion and parroted Trump’s 2020 election fraud conspiracies.
‘Adam Laxalt’s, like, an extremist at the end of the day. I don’t- I really don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to reelect Catherine Cortez Masto considering her record,’ Mathisen said.
‘But I- you know, I’ve seen the polls. I know how it’s going.’
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