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regular customers that they're unsure now if they want to buy that meat. that's why -- you keep in mind norfolk southern has benefitted for years by their executives by stock buy-backs. they've laid off a third of their workforce in the last ten years, meaning they're not doing the track inspections. they're almost cursory inspections instead of having enough employees to do that. they want only one person on the trains in the locomotives that are pulling 150 cars. they want to scale back to that because it's all about their bottom line. and they go to wall street every quarter and they show the cuts they're making in employees in safety and all that. and they're going to be held responsible. but we've got to make sure that we look at people's health today and people's health five years down the road, too. >> right. and as you point out, we don't know what we don't know, and that's what's so terrifying about it. this industry has been going through, you know, seismic shift
last year they made $200 billion, in the midst of a global energy crisis. i think it's outrageous. they used the record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their ceos and shareholders. corporations ought to do the right thing. that is why i propose we quadruple tax on corporate stock buy—backs and encourage long—term investment. critics say these profits are the windfalls of war, but share buy—backs and pumped—up dividends have raised questions about why they don't put money into renewable security. they could even be a survival strategy for the energy demands of tomorrow. rather than hydrocarbons accounting for 85% of the energy mix, as they do today, it will maybe be 40—60% of energy mix by the middle of the century. the successful oil and gas companies that survive
of buy backs and thousands of workers are laid off from norfolk southern, and then they don't invest in safety rules and regulations and this kind of thing happens. >> the defense is these are public companies that need investors, lots of investors and you need to reward the investors when you can so you have access to the capital. there is this capitalist defense of it and then the optics. >> this is highlighting. this is something that you have discussed and has been discussed for years about the stock buy backs. >> this is how wall street runs, it runs on stock buy backs and when you start to have stability and profits in the company, a ceo or board gives some of that money back. >> another way is dividends. that would be taxed right?
i think it's outrageous. they used the record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their ceos and shareholders. corporations ought to do the right thing. that is why i propose we quadruple tax on corporate stock buy—backs and encourage long—term investment. critics say these profits are the windfalls of war, but share buy—backs and pumped—up dividends have raised questions about why they don't put money into renewable security. they could even be a survival strategy for the energy demands of tomorrow. rather than hydrocarbons accounting for 85% of the energy mix, as they do today, it will maybe be 40—60% of energy mix by the middle of the century. the successful oil and gas companies that survive through that period are going to be those that can diversify their portfolios,
bit, audacious plans on taxing the rich, stock buy backs and i think these are really strong markers that are important for us to put down because even though they are progressive they are also overwhelmingly popular among independents, democrats and even some republicans as well. >> so on that note, this is the first time you're going to be in that chamber or that you're here as a member of the minority not the majority. what are your expectations, the real expectations about working with republicans on maybe not some of those tax issues because i don't think a lot of them will but other issues? >> so i sit on the oversight committee, and every once in a while there are very odd alignments in something that we find in common, sometimes going after defense contractors that are defrauding the government. even at the end of last term we had a hearing on bipartisan approaches to cannabis,
mostly taken care of at this point. the things he didn't get done and called for tonight, i think what did get done democrats did control the house. he called for an assault rifle ban. he's calling for, you know, more child care and community college access. again, if the democratic congress was going to do that it doesn't seem like the republican congress is going to do that, more taxing on stock buy backs, all things that are popular on the progressive left, not things the republican house under kevin mccarthy are going to do. he knows they're not going to pass these things. tonight he said words of consilliation and cooperation. he wasn't offering that. that doesn't mean he won't get there at some point. he is of course a 36-year
around oil drilling, and some of those amendments were around oil banning, stock buy backs of oil companies that had been profit tearing in the last year but also other things about meeting net emissions and i was shocked it picked up a republican vote, but you only need three more beyond that in order to pick up a governing majority. >> you talked about speaker mccarthy he's obviously going to be sitting around the president tonight. there are now a majority of republicans around the chamber where you'll be sitting. what are your expectations just of the feeling in that room? >> you know, i think we'll see speaker mccarthy i think had some trouble corralling his own caucus. and so while he may have had some guidance around being disciplined and being respectful, we'll see if his caucus really follows suit. you know, i think he's also been struggling with this narrative around republicans possibly attempting to cut social security and medicare. and while on one hand he's
legislator. he didn't give any hint tonight of where if anywhere he's willing to make compromises toward the republican agenda. instead he's trying to call them out -- >> isn't that amazing, right, that hard core maga republicans wouldn't get behind a billionaires tax regulating stock buy backs? one would think that's right up their alley. >> one would think, but we've been doing this for a long time getting confused. thanks for being with us. coming up, i'll see you at the groundbreaking. president biden pokes fun of the republicans who voted against his infrastructure bill and later took credit for it. three congressmen join us to talk all about it when the special "state of the union" coverage continues. i wish that shaq was my real life big brother. what's up, little bro? turns out, some wishes do come true. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company
between his leadership and theirs. but he does need to focus on the economy. we heard from a top economic advisor acknowledging inflation better than it was, still high. the president is going to say he knows americans have felt this and there has been economic pain. >> i think they're sort of talking past each other last night or right now. we heard that with kevin mccarthy and going to hear it from joe biden tonight. can they make a physical deal. i talked about stock buy backs. they're not talking about revenue at all. you can shrink the deficit in two ways. i know you're a prodigious saver. you can bring down spending or raise your revenues to shrink that gap. kevin mccarthy wants to talk