July 01, 2025

Warren Slams Big Tech CEOs for Spending Millions to Influence Trump and Republican Lawmakers, Attempting to Secure Billions in Tax Handouts Paid For By Ripping Health Care, Food From Families

“Your lavish political spending appears to be bearing fruit, and everyday American families will pay the price.”

Text of Letters to Big Tech Companies (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, pushed Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, on their attempts to secure billion-dollar tax handouts paid for by ripping away health care coverage, food assistance, and other services from millions of American families.

After spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress for tax breaks, lavishly donating to President Trump’s inauguration, and funding Congressional Republicans’ election campaigns, these Big Tech companies are attempting to secure:

  • Retroactive research and development (R&D) expensing tax breaks, which would allow them to deduct billions of dollars in past R&D spending far more rapidly, slashing their overall tax liability. This means that, inexplicably, taxpayers will be subsidizing research that has already happened.

    “Since even the proponents of R&D expensing argue that the policy’s purpose is to incentivize future R&D spending, this retroactive tax break for previous years’ R&D spending is an utterly pointless and brazenly irresponsible corporate handout,” wrote Senator Warren.

  • Permanent extension of 100% bonus depreciation, which will permit these companies to immediately write off the entire cost of purchasing equipment or other assets. This policy disproportionately benefits giant corporations while providing little help for small businesses. Indeed, two-thirds of the benefits of this tax break go to corporations earning over $250 million in revenue.

  • A massive expansion of the business interest deduction, which will raise the limit on how much interest large companies (those with over $25 million in revenue) can deduct from their taxes.

    “Because small businesses are already exempt from the limit, this policy amounts to another massive giveaway that will exclusively accrue to large corporations — calling into question corporate lobbyists’ framing of the legislation as a boon to small businesses,” wrote Senator Warren.

These provisions are part of President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill,” which would pay for those tax cuts by ripping away health care coverage and food assistance from millions, causing an estimated 51,000 additional deaths per year due to patients losing access to health care and a projected decline in the quality of care at nursing homes.

“You have spent millions cozying up to President Trump and Congressional Republicans, and they now appear ready to return the favor by handing you billions of dollars in tax breaks — with American families footing the bill,” wrote Senator Warren to the companies. “Your lavish political spending appears to be bearing fruit, and everyday American families will pay the price.”

###