Memo
MEMO: Ahead of SOTU, Here’s What You Need to Know About Pandemic Profiteering and Corporate Hypocrisy on Democracy
Following reports that President Biden’s State of the Union address will urge Congress to pass his plans to combat rising costs, expand voting rights, and confirm the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, government watchdog Accountable.US compiled its recent reports outlining the greedy corporations, powerful special interests, and right-wing lawmakers undermining the administration’s progress at the expense of working families.
CORPORATE GREED MAKING INFLATION WORSE
For months, Accountable.US has been documenting how major companies across several industries are using the pandemic as an excuse to increase their wealth and line their shareholders’ pockets. Many CEOs have claimed they had no choice but to hike costs on consumers, then turned around and boasted to investors of record profits and healthy balance sheets. Many corporations that throttled prices have chosen to pay their executives millions more or reward their shareholders via stock buybacks during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have given their corporate donors a free pass to price gouge with impunity as they obstruct the President’s Build Back Better plan to address the supply chain crisis and bring costs downs for families.
FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US:
- REPORT: Big Trucking Companies Profiteering Off of Supply Chain Crisis While Blaming Self-Inflicted Driver Shortage for Price Hikes
- REPORT: Despite Record Profits, Shipping Industry Is Lobbying Against Bill to Crack Down on Supply Chain Profiteering
- Big Oil Companies Net $75 Billion in Profit While Americans Struggle to Heat Homes, Fill Gas Tanks
- REPORT: Republicans in Congress Quick to Forget Their Obstruction of Supply Chain-Strengthening Bills
- Watchdog: After Repeatedly Politicizing Inflation, Toomey Blocks Federal Reserve Nominees Best Positioned To Fight Rising Costs
- Profiteering 101: Tyson Foods’ Profits Nearly Double Amid Worker Mistreatment and Consumer Price Hikes
- REPORT: Republican Blame Game on Meat Prices Ignoring Big Meatpacker’s History of Price-Fixing and Gouging
PRESIDENT BIDEN’S NOMINEES OF COLOR FACING SLOWER SENATE CONFIRMATIONS
As President Biden selects Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve as the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, Accountable.US highlighted its recent research showing the president’s nominees of color, especially women, have faced longer confirmation processes than his white male nominees.
The report found that the Senate has confirmed Biden’s white and male nominees at a significantly faster rate than nominees of color and dug into the confirmation rates of the Justice, State, Interior, Energy, and Commerce Departments.
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CORPORATIONS TOUT SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRACY WHILE FUELING ANTI-VOTER LAWMAKERS
As right-wing politicians have been pushing more and more voter suppression efforts at the state-level, Accountable.US has been working to expose the hypocrisy of several major corporations, including Meta, Amazon, Google, that claim to support voting rights but continue to cut campaign checks to the Senate Republicans blocking two major federal voting rights bills, the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (JLVRAA).
FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US:
- Watchdog: Corporations That Claim to Back Voting Rights Hypocritically Gave $640K to Senate Republicans That Obstructed Voting Rights Legislation
- REPORT: Corporations Claiming to Support John Lewis Voting Rights Bill Gave $164K to Senate Republicans That Blocked It
- REPORT: 16 Republican Senators Abandoned Prior Support for Voting Rights
- REPORT: Corporations That Claim to Support Voting Rights Gave $174K to Senate Republicans Who Just Blocked The Freedom To Vote Act
- Watchdog: Corporations Backing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act Gave Over $536K to McConnell
