Elizabeth Warren rips into Jeff Bezos over his upcoming trip to space: 'He's laughing at every person in America who actually paid taxes'
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren slammed Jeff Bezos over his upcoming Blue Origin spaceflight.
- "He's laughing at every person in America who actually paid taxes," Warren said.
- Her comment followed a ProPublica report on Bezos' and other billionaires' income taxes.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is taking Jeff Bezos to task for his upcoming spaceflight.
TMZ spotted Warren on Thursday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and used the opportunity to ask the Massachusetts senator about her thoughts on Bezos' plan to fly to space next month.
"He's laughing at every person in America who actually paid taxes," Warren said. "Jeff Bezos' trip to outer space is being financed by all the rest of the US taxpayers who paid their taxes so that Jeff Bezos didn't have to."
She added: "Jeff Bezos kept all of his money and uses it on a space ticket. Uh-uh."
Representatives for Bezos and Blue Origin did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
ProPublica published a bombshell report this week that said the Amazon CEO didn't pay federal income taxes for at least two years. In 2011, Bezos received a $4,000 tax credit for his children because he lost more money in investments than he earned from his other income, the report said.
Read more: Why should we care what billionaires think of the wealth tax?
Bezos and Amazon have been frequent targets for Warren and other progressive politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Earlier this year, Warren clashed with Amazon ahead of the union vote at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, saying the company was able to "exploit loopholes and tax havens to pay close to nothing in taxes."
After Amazon responded on Twitter, Warren said she would "fight to break up Big Tech so you're not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets."
In March, Warren and Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania introduced a bill called the Ultra Millionaire Tax Act that would place a 2% tax on household net worths of $50 million to $1 billion and a 3% tax on household net worths over $1 billion.
Bezos, who's set to step down as Amazon's CEO early next month, is worth about $194 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.
Bezos announced this week that he'd be aboard the first human flight conducted by his space-exploration company, Blue Origin, on July 20. The 11-minute trip would take him; his brother, Mark; and a third passenger (who will bid millions for the opportunity) 62 miles above Earth.