Bernie Sanders: “Let us back up a little bit. What Mr. DeFazio is talking about is that in the early 1980s, if my memory is correct, a…”

“Let us back up a little bit. What Mr. DeFazio is talking about is that in the early 1980s, if my memory is correct, a majority of the major corporations in America paid zero, not a penny in taxes, and, as Mr. DeFazio indicates, some of them actually got a credit. That is how absurd and corrupt the tax system was. Well, both the Democrats and the Republicans became a little bit embarrassed by this scandalous situation where we have working people making $20- or $30,000 a year paying more in taxes than all of AT&T and General Electric and the other large corporations. So what they passed in 1986 was called the minimum corporate tax. Basically, what that said, it said large multinational corporations with all of your fancy lawyers and your tax accountants and everybody else, after you go through all of the tax loopholes and after you avoid paying taxes on this, that and the other thing and you end up with zero, well, guess what, we think you should at least pay a minimal tax, a minimal tax. And that is what was passed in 1986, mandating the corporations at least paid something. What Mr. DeFazio is describing is that yesterday, as part of the Republican tax bill, that minimal corporate tax was repealed, and we are rapidly moving back to the time when the largest corporations in America will pay zero in taxes.”