Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) on Wednesday said Congress is not doing its job of redistributing income in a fair way.
"We know Congress isn't doing its job to redistribute income in any way that's fair to hundreds of millions of Americans, we know that," Brown said during a hearing at the Senate Banking Committee.
"Senator McConnell and the president have refused to raise the minimum wage, it's been stuck for 11 years at under eight dollars," Brown said. "They took away overtime for about 2 or 3 million Americans because of truncating the overtime rule, tax cuts for the rich, and now tax cuts for Medicare."
The senator's statement resembles a 2008 comment by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. An Ohio plumber named Joe Wurzelbacher asked Obama whether his taxes would increase after purchasing a business that made more than $250,000. Obama told Wurzelbacher a tax increase on people like him was a good thing. He told the Ohio voter, "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
Policy agendas like that of presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) also call for wealth redistribution. Sanders has campaigned in support of Medicare for All, which would increase taxes for the wealthy and the middle class.