Ben and Jerry’s Ben Cohen: Tremendous amount of tax loo… — Transcript

Ben Cohen discusses tax loopholes, Democratic socialism, and Bernie Sanders-inspired ice cream on Fox Business.

Key Takeaways

Democratic socialism aims to provide universal access to healthcare and education.
Wealth inequality is symbolized through the ice cream metaphor.
Current tax loopholes enable the wealthy and corporations to avoid paying fair taxes.
Scrapping the Social Security tax cap could secure the program's future.
Big money's influence in politics prevents meaningful tax reform.

Summary

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield introduce a Bernie Sanders-inspired ice cream called Bernie's Yearning.
The ice cream symbolizes wealth inequality with a solid chocolate disc representing wealth held by the top 1%.
They explain Democratic socialism as government working for all people, ensuring access to healthcare and education.
Bernie Sanders' plan to scrap the Social Security tax cap to stabilize the program is discussed.
Ben Cohen highlights tax loopholes that allow the ultra-wealthy and corporations to avoid paying fair taxes.
The influence of big money in politics is identified as a root cause of unfair tax laws favoring the wealthy.
They advocate for a political revolution to change the system rather than minor tax code adjustments.
The conversation emphasizes fairness in taxation and the need for everyone to pay their fair share.

Chapters

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Bring in ice cream entrepreneurs and Bernie Sanders supporters Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Good to see you guys. Thanks so much for joining us. How you doing? Top of the morning. Uh, top of the morning to you. So you got a

Speaker A

new ice cream concoction inspired by Senator Sanders, Bernie's Yearning. That's correct. Uh, you know, it's a participatory flavor. When you open up the lid, you come across this solid disc of solid chocolate, and underneath it is just plain mint ice cream, and, uh, the

Speaker A

solid disc of chocolate represents all of the wealth since the end of the recession that's gone up to the top 1%. Oh, and, uh, underneath is the rest of us. And the way you eat it is they whack it

Speaker A

up into a bunch of little pieces and move it around, and, uh, there you have it. That sounds really delicious. Let me ask you, Ben and Jerry, okay, what does socialism mean to you? Give me your take on how things changed, change once Bernie

Speaker A

Sanders is the president and we all move toward socialism. Well, you know, we have a program in the US called Social Security, uh, that puts people ahead of profits essentially, and all Bernie's talking about is making health care a human

Speaker A

right and making access to education something that's available to everybody, uh, regardless of how much money you have. So, so you think, so you think socialism is making sure everybody has access to all the things that we need like

Speaker A

education, like health care, and he's saying that it's going to be free, I mean, free college. Well, first of all, it's Democratic socialism, and what it means is that government will work for all the people and not just for the few at

Speaker A

the top and for the corporations, and we're going to pay for it by having everybody pay for their fair share. So that now, now by the way, corporations. Yep, you, you are aware that Social Security is going bankrupt,

Speaker A

right? Well, you know, the plan that Bernie has is to scrap the cap. Right now, people that earn over $250,000 a year don't pay any Social Security taxes on income above that amount, and once you scrap that cap and

Speaker A

have everybody pay their fair share, Social Security is in really good shape. Now, wait, let me, let me ask you, when you say pay their fair share now, right now the tax, the tax code has the highest earning earners paying the most in terms

Speaker A

of tax. Now, do you, so do you believe that the highest earners do not pay their fair share? That's correct. I think there's a tremendous amount of loopholes that allow for, yeah, people to shelter that in, in, in offshore tax havens, and, uh,

Speaker A

allow them to not pay taxes on, uh, estates of over $4 million. I mean, plus you have all these really profitable corporations that end up paying zero tax, and that's not fair. That's not, uh, what everybody wants. Why not just change the

Speaker A

tax code rather than just turning the whole system upside down and going towards socialism? Why not? Why aren't we just changing the tax code? Well, the real problem is the influence of big money in politics, and that's really what determines what kind

Speaker A

of tax code we have, what kind of laws we have, because the way the system is both politically and economically, all the benefits go to the top 1%, to the ultra-wealthy and to the corporations. So we need what Bernie

Speaker A

calls a political revolution. So let me, so let me ask you, you guys, you

Topics:Ben CohenJerry GreenfieldBen and Jerry'sBernie SandersDemocratic socialismtax loopholesSocial Securitywealth inequalitypolitical revolutionFox Business

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the concept behind the Bernie Sanders-inspired ice cream?

The ice cream, called Bernie's Yearning, uses a solid chocolate disc to represent the wealth held by the top 1%, with mint ice cream underneath symbolizing the rest of the population, highlighting wealth inequality.

How do Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield define Democratic socialism?

They describe Democratic socialism as a system where the government works for all people, ensuring access to healthcare and education, and requiring everyone to pay their fair share of taxes.

What solution do they propose for the Social Security funding issue?

They support Bernie Sanders' plan to scrap the Social Security tax cap on income above $250,000, which would require higher earners to pay more and help secure the program's financial future.

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