Chuck Schumer: “since the Republicans jammed through a massive corporate tax cut in December, hardly a day goes by that we don't read…”

“since the Republicans jammed through a massive corporate tax cut in December, hardly a day goes by that we don't read about a corporation using the savings to purchase its own stock. The average citizen may ask: What is that all about? Well, when a company purchases its own stock, it is sort of artificially making less stock, buying it back, and raising the price of the shares. Why do they do that? There are two reasons, both to benefit the corporate CEOs but not the workers. First, corporate CEOs have a lot of the stock themselves, so they make money; second, they look better when the stock price goes up. But the stock price isn't going up because the company has sold more goods, been more productive, bought new machinery, or found a new product. The stock simply goes up because they have decreased the number of shares. It is a scam in a certain sense, helping corporate CEOs, helping shareholders--80 percent of the shares are held by the top 10 percent, so it doesn't really help average Americans, and that is including 401(k)s--but it doesn't help the worker. We have heard many claims from our Republican friends: Pass this tax bill, and the workers will benefit. Well, unfortunately, now we see who is really benefiting. Just as we predicted, it is the corporate CEOs and the wealthiest of Americans. Just recently, the total amount of share buybacks surpassed $220 billion this year.…”