Citing ‘Outrageous’ Big Oil Profits, Biden Calls For Quadrupling Tax On ‘Corporate Stock Buybacks’

President Joe Biden criticized Big Oil companies for using record profits to pay for “corporate stock buybacks,” calling for the tax on such purchases to be quadrupled in his State of the Union address Tuesday.

Biden described the record profits oil companies generated in 2022, a number he pegged at $200 billion, as “outrageous” considering the “global energy crisis.” In August 2022, Biden signed a 1% tax on stock buybacks into law, but multi billion dollar buybacks from major corporations like Apple, Meta, Chevron and ExxonMobil have continued relatively unabated, CNBC reported.

“If they had in fact, invested in production, it would have kept gas prices down.” Biden said. “Instead, they used the record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders. Corporations ought to do the right thing.”