Van Hollen: Companies Announcing Bonuses After Tax Bill Are ‘Doing It as a PR Stunt’

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chair Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) argued that companies announcing they’ll give out bonuses, hire more, and invest more after the passage of the GOP tax bill are doing so as “a PR stunt.”

Van Hollen said, “I think they are doing it as a PR stunt.”

He added, “These are some one-time bonuses, sounds very nice, but that was not what was promised. What was promised was a $4,000-a-year pay increase into the base. And that is why you see union members going to these corporations and saying, ‘Look, thanks for the one-time bonus, but that is not what was promised as part of this tax cut.’ So, at the same time, you see those one-time bonuses, in the last couple weeks, you’ve seen reported $87 billion in stock buybacks. So, that’s money going to the shareholders. And I want to remind people that 35% of those stockholders are foreign stockholders. And so, in the year 2019, $48 billion is going to go into the pockets of foreign stockholders, coming out of the pockets of millions of middle class taxpayers.”

(h/t Grabien)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett