Bernie Sanders is a hypocrite: Andy Puzder
Capitalism vs. Socialism.
The American political system is embroiled in a debate about socialism and capitalism. Several Democratic presidential candidates including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have called for sweeping changes to an economic system they say is responsible for growing inequality and division within the country.
“You could implement all of Elizabeth Warren’s tax increases and all of Bernie Sander’s socialist re-distribution policies that take those tax dollars and spread them to the bottom. The way they measure income inequality wouldn’t change income inequality one dollar,” Former CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Friday. “President Trump has a problem: it’s hard to fight against free stuff. The only time that wages go up is if you have economic growth, you have employers competing for employees, driving wages up. We’ve seen that in this economy.”
President Trump has accused the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates for embracing socialism, which he says, would eliminate the current growth of the U.S. economy. “Under President Trump, wages have been up for three consecutive quarters. If you look at lower income people like restaurants and hotels, that’s up about 5 percent. It’s harder to find blue collar workers than white collar workers for the first time in decades,” Puzder said.
Sanders has pitched himself as a grassroots economic populist, focusing his campaign on income inequality and higher taxes for the rich. He released a decade’s worth of his tax returns after years of resisting disclosure. The returns show Sanders and his wife, Jane, earned more than $1 million in total income in 2016 and 2017, wealth powered by book royalties.
Puzder said the Vermont senator’s constant criticism of corporations such as Amazon and Netflix for not paying its fair share of taxes is unwarranted since Sanders has used similar tax breaks to advance his own income. “He criticizes them; however he uses every deduction he could to lower his taxes, he took full advantage of the tax rates and the tax bill he voted against. He then comes out and says ‘well, I paid what I owed.’ Well, guess what? So did Amazon and Netflix. They’re all paying what they owe. He’s a hypocrite. He’s out to get power. It’s a do as I say not as I do type of philosophy.”
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Some in the Democratic Party have expressed concern that Sanders’ far-left positions may lose the support of swing voters in a general election and lead to Trump’s re-election. But Sanders hasn’t backed away from any of his long-held positions, saying many of the ideas he’s proposed are no longer considered out of the mainstream.