I resent the idea that we must wait with bated breath to see what these two clowns will further do to have something passed that is in dire need of happening. Manchin may need cred as you state but I don’t trust either one of them. This tax is beyond necessary. Do I think it will pass? Hell to the no.
I take exception to Mary calling these senators "clowns". This is an insult to the theatrical profession. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Emmett Kelly, and Carol Burnett are clowns. They showed us what we are but make them think it's them.
As far as the rich not paying taxes, you are right. Ms. Helmsley was right "Only poor people pay taxes" much as she is disliked she was right.
For those who are not tax experts but would like information written for the newspaper reading scholars, I recommend the following books. Some are dated but the theme is the same.
1963, Philip M. Stern's The Great Treasury Raid, Random House
1973, Philip M. Stern's , The Rape of the Taxpayer, Random House
198? , Donald Barlett and James Steele, America: Who really Pays the Taxes?
2001, David Cay Johnston, Perfectly Legal.
All except Stern won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting.
Shakespeare said there is no theatre without an audience, The truth is there, Learn and share.
I really hope Democrats can do well in the midterms, hold or improve their majorities. Even without a wealth tax some big gaps could be closed just by taxing capital gains at the same rates as earned income, applying the social security tax on 100% of incomes and getting rid of the "carried interest" loophole.
In regard to the midterms, I still believe healthcare may be a winning issue for Democrats. Let Biden issue an executive order to provide Federal Medicare to all who want it, and to mandate employers who already provide health insurance to their employees, to provide this option also. Payments would be based on income. Employers would favor ir because it would lower their costs.
[Note, this is NOT Medicare-for-All, which is a vote loser. Democrats often mistakenly say that the majority of Americans want MFA. Not quite true. What is true is that if you poll Americans on the issue, 72% say they want MFA, but if you ask the follow-up question "By the way, you do realize this means you too would have Medicare?" support drops in half, to 36%. So what we think Americans hear when asked "Do you want MFA?" what they are hearing is "Do you want Universal healthcare?"]
That said, within a year of issuing the executive order for MFA Who Want It, Medicare would become extremely popular - as in "Hey, Joey has no copays or deductibles and he likes his doctors." Let Manchin or McConnell try to take that away from their constituents. It could spell the end for the GOP.
Could the order be challenged in Congress? Yes. Would it succeed? Perhaps not, because it would pay for itself. But it would require some gonadal fortitude approaching that of Roosevelt.......
The super wealthy don’t pay taxes because they borrow money against the stocks they own and use that money for living expenses and mansion purchases. They do not sell their stocks because this would trigger capital gains taxes. Borrowing money and spending it does not trigger taxes.
What do you do when you buy an expensive home in the Berkeley hills? You get a mortgage rather than liquidate money in your 401k. Same is true if you take a reverse mortgage. Once you die the basis of your assets will adjust and your heirs don’t have to pay capital gains taxes. They can sell the home and pay back the mortgage without ever having to pay capital gains taxes. (But they do have to pay inheritance taxes. There is a generous exemption.)
Same is true if assets are donated to a foundation, it avoids paying taxes. The basis of the stock donated will adjust to the market value. Thus the proliferation of private foundations.
Biden’s proposal is a good one but as you write it is unlikely to pass so it is just a bone thrown in the direction of the progressives.
Prof Reich It’s a tax none of your Fan club has to pay. The acclaim will be universal and the condemnation of Mansion will be assured. But there are the silent super rich Democrats who even want to restore a tax deduction on their big mansions and block any fiscal reform changes if they do not get their way. This is one tax they cannot avoid. Have you seen the mansions of Pelosi and Feinstein? Feinstein’s husband just passed away. She has many millions of capital gains in her home, all forgiven, not a penny in capital gains taxes. So it is not just the horrible Republicans….
and then there is of course Schumer, remember him? He protects the hedge fund managers from paying ordinary income taxes rather than capital gains taxes. These are of course the fund managers for the gazillionaires.
Oh you are such hypocrites when you claim that it is all Mansion's fault.
Many multi-millionaires and billionaires are hedge fund managers who use the carried interest tax loophole to avoid paying taxes. Can't Biden and company at least convince enough members of Congress to get rid of this loophole?
Speaking of the Senate double-agent spies and sellouts we must tolerate (Manchin & Sinema) for a few court nominations… it’s common knowledge that lobbyists often write legislation for the politicians they bribe and own. How can we show that lobbyists may be writing major portions of SCOTUS opinions for Thomas, who was silent for decades? Just like the Weiner scandal allowed authorities to confiscate a former Hillary staffer’s computer, might we get access to Ginni Thomas’s?
I’m going to look at the entire budget, trust the people who put this together and reserve judgment. There are so many complicated factors in “just” a county budget of $1.5 billion with which I have experience, let alone a federal. More than ever, and especially because we need our children raised with clean air and water, a peaceful world, and a world actually resilient from climate change, we have to accept Democracy’s inevitable imperfection. Trickle down economics started us down the path of this amplified income disparity. and the Citizen’s United ruling further amplified. Humbly stated, as someone who grew up in a double union household, steeped in FDR values, then JFK’s, I am trusting DEMOCRATS and our Biden/Harris team. Doing anything else enables Trump and the other truly malevolent forces that prey upon people whether homeless in California or NYC, or disabled in Ohio or West Virginia. The centabillionare’s can afford this. And, it gives us moral equivalency for what we are doing in foreign policy. IMHO
It may be helpful to visualize where you and your family stand in relation to those who run corporate America and determine your standard of living. In 2016, the wealthiest American was estimated to be worth 81 Billion dollars. Measuring 81 inches on a wall would create a graph 6 feet 9 inches tall. By 2020 with the wealthiest American now worth 179 Billion (perhaps with the help of an enormous tax break) the graph would have grown to 15 feet, nearly two stories in height. Today the Real-Time Billionaires list estimates the wealthiest American to be worth 290 Billion, creating a graph 24 feet or three entire stories. Meanwhile, an individual who worked and saved all their life to retire with 1 Million dollars would be equivalent to only one, one thousandth of an inch, or roughly the thickness of a human hair at the very bottom of the graph. The rest of us wouldn’t even show up without the aid of a microscope. We are truly invisible. Depicting a similar graph seems like a perfect project for Inequality Media.
Taxing the super wealthy is a great idea, but getting it done is a different story. There are other issues that need to be addressed also. News is no longer news anymore. I no longer watch any news on TV anymore because it isn't news, it's opinions. There should be disclaimers running at the bottom of the screen saying as much . And as for Biden saying saying Putin needs to be gone, I say good for him. He only said out loud what everyone else is thinking.
20% as a minimum tax? Doesn’t that really mean as a maximum? If they’re paying much less than 20% than 20% is a ceiling, not a floor. Why is 20% rate a success? Isn’t the highest marginal tax rate on the rest of us 37%? Is everyone going to get a tax cut as well?
Declaring that a nurse shouldn’t pay more in taxes than a billionaire pays seems to be code for a flat tax. Am I wrong? 20% is a tax cut. Will the nurses et Al get a tax cut too?
I trust Joe Manchin no farther than I can throw him, as that old saying goes. But I do hope you are correct Dr. Reich.
I resent the idea that we must wait with bated breath to see what these two clowns will further do to have something passed that is in dire need of happening. Manchin may need cred as you state but I don’t trust either one of them. This tax is beyond necessary. Do I think it will pass? Hell to the no.
I take exception to Mary calling these senators "clowns". This is an insult to the theatrical profession. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Emmett Kelly, and Carol Burnett are clowns. They showed us what we are but make them think it's them.
As far as the rich not paying taxes, you are right. Ms. Helmsley was right "Only poor people pay taxes" much as she is disliked she was right.
For those who are not tax experts but would like information written for the newspaper reading scholars, I recommend the following books. Some are dated but the theme is the same.
1963, Philip M. Stern's The Great Treasury Raid, Random House
1973, Philip M. Stern's , The Rape of the Taxpayer, Random House
198? , Donald Barlett and James Steele, America: Who really Pays the Taxes?
2001, David Cay Johnston, Perfectly Legal.
All except Stern won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting.
Shakespeare said there is no theatre without an audience, The truth is there, Learn and share.
I really hope Democrats can do well in the midterms, hold or improve their majorities. Even without a wealth tax some big gaps could be closed just by taxing capital gains at the same rates as earned income, applying the social security tax on 100% of incomes and getting rid of the "carried interest" loophole.
In regard to the midterms, I still believe healthcare may be a winning issue for Democrats. Let Biden issue an executive order to provide Federal Medicare to all who want it, and to mandate employers who already provide health insurance to their employees, to provide this option also. Payments would be based on income. Employers would favor ir because it would lower their costs.
[Note, this is NOT Medicare-for-All, which is a vote loser. Democrats often mistakenly say that the majority of Americans want MFA. Not quite true. What is true is that if you poll Americans on the issue, 72% say they want MFA, but if you ask the follow-up question "By the way, you do realize this means you too would have Medicare?" support drops in half, to 36%. So what we think Americans hear when asked "Do you want MFA?" what they are hearing is "Do you want Universal healthcare?"]
That said, within a year of issuing the executive order for MFA Who Want It, Medicare would become extremely popular - as in "Hey, Joey has no copays or deductibles and he likes his doctors." Let Manchin or McConnell try to take that away from their constituents. It could spell the end for the GOP.
Could the order be challenged in Congress? Yes. Would it succeed? Perhaps not, because it would pay for itself. But it would require some gonadal fortitude approaching that of Roosevelt.......
The super wealthy don’t pay taxes because they borrow money against the stocks they own and use that money for living expenses and mansion purchases. They do not sell their stocks because this would trigger capital gains taxes. Borrowing money and spending it does not trigger taxes.
What do you do when you buy an expensive home in the Berkeley hills? You get a mortgage rather than liquidate money in your 401k. Same is true if you take a reverse mortgage. Once you die the basis of your assets will adjust and your heirs don’t have to pay capital gains taxes. They can sell the home and pay back the mortgage without ever having to pay capital gains taxes. (But they do have to pay inheritance taxes. There is a generous exemption.)
Same is true if assets are donated to a foundation, it avoids paying taxes. The basis of the stock donated will adjust to the market value. Thus the proliferation of private foundations.
Biden’s proposal is a good one but as you write it is unlikely to pass so it is just a bone thrown in the direction of the progressives.
Much will turn on the midterm elections.
Prof Reich It’s a tax none of your Fan club has to pay. The acclaim will be universal and the condemnation of Mansion will be assured. But there are the silent super rich Democrats who even want to restore a tax deduction on their big mansions and block any fiscal reform changes if they do not get their way. This is one tax they cannot avoid. Have you seen the mansions of Pelosi and Feinstein? Feinstein’s husband just passed away. She has many millions of capital gains in her home, all forgiven, not a penny in capital gains taxes. So it is not just the horrible Republicans….
and then there is of course Schumer, remember him? He protects the hedge fund managers from paying ordinary income taxes rather than capital gains taxes. These are of course the fund managers for the gazillionaires.
Oh you are such hypocrites when you claim that it is all Mansion's fault.
Have Chris Rock insult Jeff Bezos' hair. That'll get it.
Many multi-millionaires and billionaires are hedge fund managers who use the carried interest tax loophole to avoid paying taxes. Can't Biden and company at least convince enough members of Congress to get rid of this loophole?
Speaking of the Senate double-agent spies and sellouts we must tolerate (Manchin & Sinema) for a few court nominations… it’s common knowledge that lobbyists often write legislation for the politicians they bribe and own. How can we show that lobbyists may be writing major portions of SCOTUS opinions for Thomas, who was silent for decades? Just like the Weiner scandal allowed authorities to confiscate a former Hillary staffer’s computer, might we get access to Ginni Thomas’s?
I’m going to look at the entire budget, trust the people who put this together and reserve judgment. There are so many complicated factors in “just” a county budget of $1.5 billion with which I have experience, let alone a federal. More than ever, and especially because we need our children raised with clean air and water, a peaceful world, and a world actually resilient from climate change, we have to accept Democracy’s inevitable imperfection. Trickle down economics started us down the path of this amplified income disparity. and the Citizen’s United ruling further amplified. Humbly stated, as someone who grew up in a double union household, steeped in FDR values, then JFK’s, I am trusting DEMOCRATS and our Biden/Harris team. Doing anything else enables Trump and the other truly malevolent forces that prey upon people whether homeless in California or NYC, or disabled in Ohio or West Virginia. The centabillionare’s can afford this. And, it gives us moral equivalency for what we are doing in foreign policy. IMHO
It may be helpful to visualize where you and your family stand in relation to those who run corporate America and determine your standard of living. In 2016, the wealthiest American was estimated to be worth 81 Billion dollars. Measuring 81 inches on a wall would create a graph 6 feet 9 inches tall. By 2020 with the wealthiest American now worth 179 Billion (perhaps with the help of an enormous tax break) the graph would have grown to 15 feet, nearly two stories in height. Today the Real-Time Billionaires list estimates the wealthiest American to be worth 290 Billion, creating a graph 24 feet or three entire stories. Meanwhile, an individual who worked and saved all their life to retire with 1 Million dollars would be equivalent to only one, one thousandth of an inch, or roughly the thickness of a human hair at the very bottom of the graph. The rest of us wouldn’t even show up without the aid of a microscope. We are truly invisible. Depicting a similar graph seems like a perfect project for Inequality Media.
Taxing the super wealthy is a great idea, but getting it done is a different story. There are other issues that need to be addressed also. News is no longer news anymore. I no longer watch any news on TV anymore because it isn't news, it's opinions. There should be disclaimers running at the bottom of the screen saying as much . And as for Biden saying saying Putin needs to be gone, I say good for him. He only said out loud what everyone else is thinking.
Bring back the 94% marginal tax rate and apply it to wealth for those above 100mil net worth
20% as a minimum tax? Doesn’t that really mean as a maximum? If they’re paying much less than 20% than 20% is a ceiling, not a floor. Why is 20% rate a success? Isn’t the highest marginal tax rate on the rest of us 37%? Is everyone going to get a tax cut as well?
Declaring that a nurse shouldn’t pay more in taxes than a billionaire pays seems to be code for a flat tax. Am I wrong? 20% is a tax cut. Will the nurses et Al get a tax cut too?
According to this just issued news report, Manchin appears to be against the 20% tax : https://about.bgov.com/news/what-to-know-in-washington-manchin-axes-bidens-budget-tax-plan/. Sadly, no surprise to me!