CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Elizabeth Warren

Interview

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COOPER: There's breaking news tonight in the push to get President Biden's signature social and environmental legislation wrapped up. Two key Senate holdouts, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are now supporting a way of paying for it. They met tonight with the President who is also getting behind the proposal, which was unveiled late today by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Angus King, a minimum tax on the country's most profitable corporations.

We will get a live report from the White House momentarily. But first Senator Elizabeth Warren joins us right now.

Senator Warren, thanks so much for being with us. Can you just talk about what your proposal is that's getting the support now?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Sure. The proposal is to fix the Amazon problem. Remember how Amazon declared $10 billion in profits, publicly told shareholders that, and then turned around and told the I.R.S., but not you, paid zero in taxes.

So what this proposal is about is to say whenever you're making more than a billion dollars in profits, that you report publicly, you're going to have to pay a minimum tax of 15 percent. It hits about 200 of the biggest companies and most profitable companies in the country, and it will raise a few hundred billion dollars that we can spend on childcare and fighting the climate crisis.

COOPER: And Senators Sinema and Manchin came out in support of the corporate minimum tax today, do you think you can win over the rest of your colleagues?

WARREN: I think we've got a very good chance on that. I talked about it today with all of my colleagues, but I've been doing this for a long time now. You know, I talked about this when I ran for President, I talked about it when we came back. I talked about it when we first started talking about Build Back Better, moved over to the Finance Committee, so I could get in there and argue for it, and it has taken a while.

Some folks have had to work through it, but I feel pretty good. Democrats understand that what the American people have known for a long time, and that is that the tax system is rigged, and letting these giant profitable companies get away with paying nothing has to come to an end, and that's what this minimum corporate profits tax is about.

COOPER: And how many corporations make a billion dollars?

WARREN: So, it's roughly around 200. That would be in this -- they are making more than a billion dollars and not paying up there at the marginal rate. And you know, this is -- I just want to draw a distinction here. We've talked a lot about raising the rate, but you have to understand, a company like Amazon, they don't care whether or not the rate is 23 percent or 33 percent or 53 percent because they're paying nothing.

So instead of putting our focus over there where we weren't getting a whole bunch of people together on it, we put the focus on, let's make sure that those who are not paying at all really have to step up and do their part. They've been free riding off the rest of us for long enough.

COOPER: So, there is -- what about the billionaire tax that have been discussed? There were people saying about people earning more than $5 million a year, a three percent tax on that. Are those still on the table?

WARREN: So, there's a second and a kind of complementary piece, the one you and I just talked about is in effect, the billionaire corporations that are paying nothing. The other one is about the billionaire people who are paying nothing. This would hit roughly around 700, a little over 700 people.

Here, it is the Jeff Bezos problem. So Jeff Bezos says to the I.R.S. that he only makes $83,000.00 a year in taxable income. That's all he makes on his salary, his W2, and so that's all he pays taxes on, while he sits on this enormous fortune. And your year by year, he grows that fortune and pays nothing in taxes on it because we have this distortion in our tax system that says, if you work hard, you've got to pay every year, if you get a W2.

But if you sit on a bunch of wealth, and it grows, you don't have to pay until you sell it or maybe even until you die, maybe never. What this says is nope, everybody who is creating wealth pays every year. It is just basic fairness. And here again, it only applies to billionaires, and those billionaires will produce hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue. There is childcare, there is home and community based care. There's a big downpayment in the fight against the climate crisis.

COOPER: And would there be -- are you looking at more taxes on other high earners?

WARREN: Well, if it were up to me, yes, I would raise the marginal rate on income taxes for the big corporations and for individuals. But we've got to get something that all 50 Democrats can get on board for, and this one is one where everybody sees the fundamental unfairness.

It basically means the United States Senate is finally catching up to the rest of America. You know, the overwhelming majority of Americans want to see us put a fair tax on the billionaires. They've done great for a long time.

And during the pandemic, they made more and more money while families were struggling. So this says, guys, it's time for you to get taxed. When you increase your wealth, the same way that people who are out there digging ditches or teaching in school or putting out fires, the same way they get taxed every year.

COOPER: And just when it comes to the timing of the votes, House Speaker Pelosi said earlier today that a framework agreement on the larger economic bill is enough to hold a vote on infrastructure. But Senator Bernie Sanders said that there should not be a vote in the House on the infrastructure package until there's an agreement of the Senate on the larger economic package. Where do you stand?

WARREN: Well, look, we've always said that this is basically one big package, and we recognize that we're going to be multiple votes in this, so that the roads and bridges made it in one set of votes. But now, it's time to do childcare and climate, and it's important that we have every confidence, all the pieces are moving together. That was the deal at the beginning. That was the deal in the middle, and that's still the deal today.

COOPER: Do you have a sense of when this will happen?

WARREN: I'm feeling optimistic. I think we've made really good progress. You know, it helps a lot when you know you're going to pay for it, and when the pay-for that we've got here is something people really get behind. And I think we're getting closer on all the rest of the pieces. So, I feel a lot of momentum, a lot of energy right now among the Democrats.

COOPER: You think by the end of the week?

WARREN: You know, I hope so. I have to tell you, I feel a lot of hope that we're really going to get good things done for the American people. I'm optimistic about that.

COOPER: Senator Elizabeth Warren, appreciate your time. Thank you.

WARREN: Thank you.

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