Tom Steyer slams corporate power: We've seen 'a 40-year attack on the rights of working people'

At Tuesday night's presidential debate in Ohio, billionaire investor and political activist Tom Steyer — for whom this was the first debate he had qualified — gave an impassioned defense of worker rights and a call to dismantle the political power of big corporations.

"First of all, let me say this. Senator Sanders is right," said Steyer. "There have been 40 years where corporations have bought this government and those 40 years have meant a 40-year attack on the rights of working people and specifically on organized labor. The results are as shameful as Sen. Sanders says, both in terms of assets and in terms of income. It's absolutely wrong. It's absolutely undemocratic and unfair. I was one of the first people on this stage to propose a wealth tax. I would undo every Republican tax cut for rich people and major corporations."

"There's something else going on here that is absolutely shameful: That's the way the money gets split up in terms of earnings," said Steyer. "As a result of taking away the rights of working people and organized labor, people haven't had a raise — 90 percent of Americans have not had a raise for 40 years. If you took the minimum wage from 1980 and just adjusted it for inflation, you get 11 bucks. It's seven and a quarter. If you included productive gains of American workers it would be over 20 bucks."

"There's something wrong here," continued Steyer. "That's that the corporations have bought our government. Our government has failed. That's why I'm running for president. Because we're not going to get any of the policies that everybody on this stage wants — health care, education, Green New Deal, or a living wage — unless we break the power of the corporations."

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