NEW: Report Reveals Perdue Appeared to Profit Off of His Corporate Special Interest Tax Giveaway

Ethics watchdog group: corporate tax handout “favored Congress over the rest of America”

ATLANTA — Today, a bombshell new report from the Center for Public Integrity and Vox revealed that Senator David Perdue appeared to profit off his deficit-busting tax giveaway to corporate special interests and the wealthiest 1% — even while the bill piled nearly $2 trillion onto the national debt and did next to nothing to grow the economy or help middle-class families.

“Senator David Perdue will always put himself and his special interest backers over middle-class Georgia families,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “The news that Perdue appeared to profit off his deficit-busting corporate tax giveaway lays bare Perdue’s first priority: looking out for himself and his bank account.”

Perdue infamously pledged he would “absolutely not” support greater middle-class tax relief if it meant delaying his prized corporate tax breaks that appeared to help him profit off the bill.And after passing his deficit-busting tax giveaway that enriched the wealthiest 1% like himself, Perdue is back to trying to put earned benefits programs like Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block blaming them for “causing this debt” — now with the support of the White House.

Center for Public Integrity: How Republicans made millions on the tax cuts they pushed through Congress

• When the price of Apple stock hit a then-record high in October 2018, among the shareholders counting their gains were 43 Republicans in Congress, who collectively owned as much as $1.5 million worth of the tech giant’s shares.

• Cutting tax rates for companies like Apple and hundreds of other stocks they own was one of many ways Republican lawmakers enriched themselves after they passed the tax law, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of the 186-page law and members’ financial disclosure forms.

• While they sold the bill as a package of business and middle-class tax cuts that would not help the wealthy, the cuts likely saved members of Congress hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes collectively, while the corporate tax cut hiked the value of their holdings.

• Contrary to Republican claims, the law is not paying for itself and is likely to burden the nation with an additional $1.9 trillion in debt over 11 years beginning in 2018, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

• The 10 richest Republicans in Congress in 2017 who voted for the tax bill held more than $731 million in assets, almost two-thirds of which were in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other instruments, according to Roll Call’s semiannual assessment of Congress’s wealth.

• Republican lawmakers also boosted the value of their stock holdings when they encouraged American corporations to repatriate money they were holding overseas.

• That increase and higher dividends augmented the holdings of 43 Republicans who voted for the tax bill, including seven senators and their spouses who owned Apple stock in 2018: … David Perdue of Georgia.

• Perdue is one of the wealthiest senators, with a net worth of $15.8 million, $14 million of which is in stocks, according to Roll Call.

• In 2018, with his wife, Perdue owned $100,000 to $250,000 in Apple stock, he reported. The couple sold some of it and received annual dividends and capital gains that year between $15,000 and $50,000.

• The optics that the tax cuts would boost the prices of stock he owned apparently didn’t concern Perdue.

• Weeks before Republicans passed the tax bill, Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked Perdue if he was worried that the corporate cuts would result in buybacks and increased dividends instead of new jobs. “Well, Maria,” he answered, “I come from the school that, you know, all of the above is acceptable. This is capitalism.”

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