*By Christian Smith*
Congressman Ro Khanna wants to inspire companies to do better by their workers.
"It's absurd that you have multi-billion dollar companies, trillion-dollar companies that aren't able to pay their workers $15," Rep. Khanna said Friday in an interview on Cheddar.
That's why the prominent House progressive, who represents California's Silicon Valley, is teaming up with ex-presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to introduce legislation that would place a tax on large corporations ー money that is equivalent to the amount of federal benefits their low-income employees receive to make a livable wage.
Rep. Khanna's House bill is called the "Corporate Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act" and targets large companies across industries, including tech, retail, and fast food, he said.
Sanders was a little more pointed with his version, dubbed the "Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act." That's Stop BEZOS, if you didn't notice.
Rep. Khanna said that Amazon has responded to the Sanders bill, saying the company creates safe working spaces for employees and offers competitive benefits. But the Congressman said the point of benefits is a separate matter.
"They're still not addressing the fundamental point," Khanna said.
"Why can't they just come out and say they're going to pay every employee in our company at least a $15 wage so they can have a livable wage?"
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/congressman-ro-khanna-wants-major-corporations-to-improve-worker-pay-or-pay-more-in-taxes).
A new bill in Illinois would require potential gun buyers to reveal their public social media accounts to state police. The ACLU is now speaking out against the idea, citing privacy and bias concerns. "The things that social media would show are one's political views, perhaps one's religion, and even in some instances someone's race," Edwin Yohnka, director of communications and public policy at ACLU of Illinois, told Cheddar.
For veteran congresswoman and cancer survivor Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, the issue of healthcare is both political and personal. She discussed President Trump's vow "to protect patients with pre-existing conditions" with Cheddar.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Feb. 8, 2019.
President Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow slammed Democratic tax and banking proposals as un-American in an interview with Cheddar's J.D. Durkin on Thursday. "I'm afraid some of my Democratic friends are going back to a war on business," Kudlow said.
It's a topic that has evaded recent political campaigns, but thanks to a superstar representative from New York, tax and bank reform could be one of the biggest campaign issues leading into 2020. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has used her Twitter feed to call out the big banks. Pete Schroeder, who covers finance for Reuters, talked to Cheddar about how the big banks are getting ready.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019.
If there's one issue on which President Trump and Congress can work together, it's infrastructure. That's according to Henry Cisneros, a veteran private equity investor and former HUD Secretary under President Bill Clinton.
President Trump laid out his vision and for the second half of his term and took a victory lap in his annual address to the nation Tuesday night, saying "the state of our union is strong."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Feb, 6, 2019.
President Trump delivered his State of the Union address from the floor of the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night. In his speech, Trump touted the strength of the U.S. economy -- including gains for women, which were cheered by those on the chamber floor -- and called again for a border wall to prevent illegal immigration.
