Jeff Bezos once again criticizes Biden for high inflation rates, saying in a tweet 'misdirection doesn't help the country'
- Jeff Bezos is once again criticizing President Biden for inflation, which is still near a 40-year high.
- "The administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy," Bezos tweeted Sunday.
Jeff Bezos is once again taking to Twitter to criticize President Joe Biden for his handling of high inflation rates.
In a tweet posted Sunday, Bezos said stimulus was partly to blame for inflation, which slowed in April for the first time in eight months but remains near 40-year highs. The billionaire Amazon founder's critique came just days after he took issue with a separate tweet from Biden that called for raising taxes on large corporations to help ease inflation.
"In fact, the administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy and only Manchin saved them from themselves," Bezos said Sunday. "Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent. Misdirection doesn't help the country."
Bezos's remarks came after Biden tweeted on Saturday that reducing the US deficit will help ease inflation.
"Under my predecessor, the deficit increased every single year," Biden wrote. "This year, we're on track to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion – the biggest one-year decline ever. It matters to families, because reducing the deficit is one of the main ways we can ease inflationary pressures."
Bezos's tweet on Sunday marked the second time in just a few days that he has spoken out against Biden on the social platform. On Friday, he accused Biden of spreading disinformation after the president took to Twitter to propose reducing inflation by ensuring "the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share."
"The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead," Bezos responded. "Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection."
Both Amazon and Bezos have long been criticized for not paying taxes, including by Biden. Amazon didn't pay any federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018, while Bezos himself paid nothing in federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011, ProPublica reported last year. He is worth $137 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In 2019, Biden tweeted, "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."
Amazon responded at the time to say it had paid $2.6 billion in corporate taxes since 2016.
"We pay every penny we owe," the company said on Twitter. "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."