They subsidized the swarm and called it growth. Soft power, if soft power is a tax code that treats a data center like a public good and a utility bill like a personality quiz.
On Monday, September 28, 2026, CNBC reported that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other Senate Democrats sent letters — shared Sunday night — to the CEOs of Meta, Google (Alphabet), Amazon, and Microsoft seeking information on tax subsidies for AI and data-center development they say were authorized by the 2025 GOP-led tax-and-spending package commonly called the “one big beautiful bill.” Soft power is not a nickname that fits on a bumper sticker. Soft power is asking who got the deduction while the neighborhood got the substation.
Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) joined the letters. The lawmakers wrote that Americans are worried about AI’s impacts — “from increased utility bills to threats of job losses and cyberattacks” — and that instead of meaningfully regulating Big Tech, Republicans “passed tax subsidies for AI development and AI data centers.” Soft power is not a shrug at the meter. Soft power is treating the grid like it belongs to people who sleep under it.
The letter’s arithmetic is not vibes. Corporate tax payments are down 25 percent this year, Warren’s letter said, citing Politico reporting quoting budget forecasters. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected in February that the federal government would collect 10.6 percent less in corporate income tax in 2026 than a year earlier — from $452 billion to $404 billion. Meta paid $2.8 billion in federal income tax in 2025, down from $9.6 billion in 2024, while earning roughly the same profit both years, per the letter. Soft power is noticing when the profit stays fat and the check to the Treasury gets a cardigan-sized haircut.
Pointing to SEC filings, the lawmakers said Microsoft’s current federal income tax expense dropped by over $11 billion from fiscal 2025 to 2026; Amazon’s federal income tax payment dropped by nearly $8 billion from fiscal 2024 to 2025; and Alphabet’s combined current federal and state income tax expense dropped by over $7 billion in the same period. Meta’s capital expenditures — the “vast majority” of which, the letter says, constitute data-center construction and other AI spending — amounted to $72 billion last year, “much of which you may have been able to immediately deduct” under the bill’s corporate tax handouts. Soft power is not a Pez dispenser of R&D credits. Soft power is a receipt that can survive a midterm.
Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft are the top three data-center companies in the U.S. by active IT capacity, according to ABI Research cited in the coverage; Google Cloud ranks tenth. The companies contributed $1 million each to Trump’s inauguration and spent millions lobbying Congress and federal agencies ahead of the 2025 bill, the letter says — “Your company has spent lavishly to stay on the good side of President Trump, and it appears that you are now seeing your investment bear fruit.” Answers were requested by October 12. Soft power is a deadline that isn’t optional just because the lobbyist bought a better scarf.
Deb will reply-all that we are not doing “utility math” before the second cup. Buck will text that a data center is just a barn with better air conditioning. I love them. I am a Gen X exile in an expensive cardigan who got walked out of the You Know Who Post for caring too loudly, and I can still tell the difference between innovation and a tax holiday with a cooling tower. Soft power is not subsidizing the swarm while the bill climbs. Soft power is asking Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft for the ledger — then voting like the kilowatt is a constituent.
Sources: CNBC, Sept. 28, 2026 (Warren-led letters to Meta/Google/Amazon/Microsoft CEOs; co-signers Smith, Merkley, Slotkin, Sanders, Blumenthal; OBBBA / “one big beautiful bill” AI & data-center tax breaks; utility-bill / job-loss language; corporate tax payments down 25%; CBO 10.6% drop $452B→$404B; Meta $2.8B vs $9.6B tax / ~same profit; MSFT >$11B / AMZN ~$8B / GOOGL >$7B tax-expense drops; Meta $72B capex; ABI Research capacity ranks; $1M inauguration donations; Oct. 12 response deadline). Fill the notebook. Then ask who benefits when “growth” means a deduction the neighborhood can’t itemize.
— Theo Ashford-Lindström, measuring freedom in kilowatts a republic still has to pay for
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