'Tilted the playing field': Mark Kelly says the economy is rigged, and he’s coming for the CEOs

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has trained his sights beyond the Trump administration this time, taking aim at the American economic system itself and calling it rigged in favour of the executive class. "The rules of our economy are written by people who benefit from them," he wrote on X. "When CEOs make hundreds of times what their workers do and still get a tax cut, that's the result of decades of policy decisions that tilted the playing field. I'm here to fix it."

While the former astronaut stopped short of detailing how he intends to fix the system, he has been active on the economic front. He recently introduced the Make More in America Act, aimed at restoring American manufacturing capacity in industries critical to national security, reducing dependence on foreign supply chains, particularly from China, and creating well-paying jobs across the country. The bill was co-introduced by more than 11 Democratic senators, including Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

The Arizona Senator reflected a growing frustration among working Americans who have watched executive pay and corporate profits soar while their wages stagnated for years. This appears to be a rare admission from someone within the establishment, highlighting structural causes rather than platitudes. Kelly's rhetoric arrives with one eye firmly on the midterms, as Democrats sharpen their economic message to galvanise a weary electorate come November.

The 62-year-old is not alone. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) recently declared on social media that he was working to make billionaires pay their "fair share" to help sustain American families, following a New York Times report stressing the gulf between extreme wealth at the top and the financial struggles of everyday Americans. "Of course people don't believe the 'Families Lose, Billionaires Win' economy is working for them. Because it's NOT," Merkley wrote on X.

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) previously called out the contradiction of an economy that can produce a trillionaire yet fails to guarantee healthcare for all Americans, lambasting the concentration of wealth among a handful of families who collectively hold close to forty percent of the nation's wealth. "This is the cost of a corrupt system, where wealth perpetuates itself, and poverty, at the same time," he wrote on X after Elon Musk became the first trillionaire in light of SpaceX's going public.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had pointed out a stark tax inequity in the wake of the news: Musk paid the same amount into Social Security as someone earning $184,500. "If we end that absurdity and lift the cap on taxable income, we can make Social Security solvent for 75 years and expand benefits by $2,400," he said. Warren, meanwhile, renewed her push for a wealth tax, noting that a typical American household would have to work more than 11 million years to match Musk's level of wealth.