Billionaires may get the last laugh, and the irony is too rich. Millionaire politicians like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-N.H.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who have been beating the drum about the moral case against billionaires, may end up hoisted by their own petard. The radical left they have been pandering to for years floated President Joe Biden into office on a raft of radical spending policies that will require massive tax hikes. In Congress and out in the streets, these under-educated activists think the richest among us will bear the burden.
Biden is coddling them with his latest tax proposal, which significantly raises taxes on the wealthy. The sum total of his plan will decrease investment, kill jobs, and transport us back to the anemic growth experienced under his former boss. All while his out-of-control spending and radical environmental policies put an effective tax on working- and middle-class voters through increased prices for energy, groceries, and other consumer goods. All of this was easily predictable, but some people need to put their hands on the hot stove to learn.
The Biden plan would increase the federal rate for individuals making over $450,000 a year to almost 40 percent. It would increase the ultra-rich’s capital gains tax rate — the tax rate paid by wealthy entrepreneurs when they sell a company or wealthy investors when they sell a stock — to a sum of over 40 percent. The White House would end the so-called “Angel of Death” loophole that allows the wealthy to effectively avoid capital gains tax altogether by not assessing the tax if the asset is passed along to an heir. And crucially, Biden plans to increase the enforcement firepower of the IRS, a move that the administration thinks could raise over a third of the $1.8 trillion in revenue targeted by the tax overhaul.
As they also correctly note, the richest among us are least likely to pay the taxes levied on them, or at least have the ability to minimize the effects of those taxes through timing. Vox’s assessment includes a genuine bit of schadenfreude for the millionaires in Congress willing to vote for this garbage plan:
What wealth managers and pro-tax activists share is a belief that the Biden proposal poses more of a threat to millionaires than it does to billionaires — because billionaires often can be more patient when it comes to dealing with taxes, choosing the exact moment that they want to pay them. Millionaires will have to work harder to find clever workarounds.
A progressive economist explains how:
To Gabriel Zucman, an influential progressive economist who studies tax payments from billionaires, the Biden plan has a “serious limitation.”
“If you’re Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or the tech billionaires, it’s very easy to hold onto [your] shares and at the same time to borrow money to buy stuff — homes, private jets, or any type of consumption,” Zucman said. “The other thing in the Biden plan is to have taxation of capital gains at death. But obviously most of these tech billionaires are quite young, which means that they could still pay very little tax as a fraction of the wealth for many years and perhaps even several decades.”
Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders don’t have the advantage of youth. Their wealth is also not in the same stratosphere as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or the other tech oligarchs. Let them choke on the cake they have baked. Or $94-a-gallon ice cream as they realize their progeny may not inherit the full benefit of their kleptocratic gains.
Another hilarious revelation in this article is the freak-out among tech billionaires in Silicon Valley wringing their hands over losing more than half of their income to the state and federal government if Biden’s plan passes. They ares concerned their children won’t get the wealth pass-throughs they intended. Some tax lawyers are already saying they expect to take on new clients after September, predicting a heavy load of last-minute business.
Keep in mind, many of these tech oligarchs were responsible for the suppression of information, such as stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop, to shield Joe Biden from media and voter scrutiny. Some even donated millions to turn deep-blue urban areas into Biden turnout machines. According to Vox, some are even talking about moving to Puerto Rico, a tax-friendly territory.
The most important thing to note is that none of these woke CEOs and billionaires mean it. For all of their lip service to radical left policies, they have no interest in paying for them. But the hit to your pocketbook that occurs with the total economic impact of the Biden agenda is OK with them as they virtue-signal for the woke base. Remember that as we endure them vomiting rainbows and flags on us this month.
None of the issues they profess to care about and shove onto the masses—climate change, defund the police, and equity—matter to them as much as the wealth they accumulate within their gated estates with armed security. At some point, the radicals they pander to will figure it out. All they can do is hope the alligator eats them last.
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