May 16, 2022

05/15/22 AT 6:55 PM Jeff Bezos, the former CEO of retail giant Amazon, has drawn attention in recent days for calling out President Joe Biden over inflation concerns and their impact on least-affluent Americans. On Sunday, Bezos commented that pandemic-related stimulus checks from the Biden administration helped cause inflation. He suggested the efforts were a “misdirection." “In fact, the administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy and only Manchin saved them from themselves. Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent. Misdirection doesn’t help the country,” Bezos tweeted . Bezos tweeted this in response to a user who called out Biden for tweeting on Saturday that his administration has reduced the deficit. Under my predecessor, the deficit increased every single year. This year, we’re on track to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion – the biggest one-year decline ever. It matters to families, because reducing the deficit is one of the main ways we can ease inflationary pressures. “This is so silly. The deficit is decreasing because we’re not doing pandemic aid anymore, and federal receipts are up because of inflation. Congress, or the Biden administration, didn’t do anything to lower the deficit,” a user tweeted . On Friday, Biden  tweeted : “You want to bring down inflation? Let’s make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share.” The comments from Biden come after many critics of Amazon have pointed out that Amazon has thrived by not paying enough taxes and after Biden criticized Amazon's tax record in an interview Friday on CNBC. Amazon paid no taxes in 2017 and 2018. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has said that Amazon should be broken up. Bezos responded that Biden’s tweet about making the wealthy corporations pay their fair share be fact-checked. “The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non-Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection,” Bezos responded to Biden on Friday. The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection. https://t.co/ye4XiNNc2v