*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).
Recreational pot went legal across Canada at midnight on Wednesday, but that doesn't mean everyone was able to get their hands on bud right away. Baker Machado takes a province-by-province look at what it'll take to smoke up and how Canada's journey could inform the U.S.
Jodie Emery, editor-in-chief of Cannabis Culture, said activists are celebrating Canada's legalization of cannabis but they aren't done fighting. The next battle in Canada will be granting amnesty to people convicted of non-violent marijuana charges, Emery said.
Comedians Anthony Atamanuik and Adam Pally are the faces of the new Comedy Central 'mockumentary' special, "The President Show." They discuss their method of observing President Trump.
Canada legalized recreational marijuana use on Wednesday, making it the second country to do so. Netflix stock is surging after the streaming giant added a record number of subscribers in the third quarter. Plus, Anthony Atamanuik and Adam Pally from Comedy Central's 'The President Show' join Cheddar to talk about their new special 'The Fall Of Donald Trump.'
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
Cheddar went to Montréal to get an up close look at the cannabis legalization effort, which begins Wednesday across Canada.
Washington, D.C., delayed the final vote on a bill that would severely limit operations for home-sharing companies like Airbnb and VRBO in the nation's capital in a surprise move by the D.C. Council Tuesday afternoon. The proposed regulations would ban short-term rentals of secondary properties in D.C. and put a 90-day cap on Washingtonians renting out rooms in their primary residences.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
Prominent business leaders have announced that they will not attend a high-profile conference in Saudi Arabia due to the current controversy surrounding the disappearance of a Washington Post journalist. Dan Primack, business editor at Axios, said while it's partly a PR move, if companies decide to pull out of business deals with Saudi Arabia it could be a huge detriment to the kingdom's economy.
Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch said that the alleged murder of Jamal Khashoggi is finally opening up the eyes of the world to the "grotesque" human rights abuses from the Saudi kingdom.
