Patriotic Millionaires Release Statement on Senate Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal
Washington, DC – Senate negotiators have reached an agreement on the major components of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal. The infrastructure spending is set to be offset by repurposed Covid relief funds, ‘recouping fraudulently paid’ federal unemployment benefits, returning unused enhanced federal unemployment supplement, delaying the Medicare Part D rebate rule and other non tax related revenue raising proposals. In response Morris Pearl, former managing director at Blackrock, Inc., and Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, issued the following statement:
“The deal reached today fails to do what an overwhelming majority of Americans have asked their elected representatives to do — tax the rich. The Senate basically turned over every rock they could find all so they could keep billionaires from paying their taxes. Simply shifting money around and claiming that unemployed Americans are criminals is just another way of burdening regular people with paying more to fund our country’s vital infrastructure needs.
Funding infrastructure without unrigging our economy and taxing the rich is not what the American people were promised. Middle-class Americans have already borne the brunt of investments in our nation’s public infrastructure, it is time that billionaires who launch recreational trips into space start to share in that cost as well. Democrats have a responsibility to do what Republicans apparently refuse to do, which is tax the rich and wealthy corporations. It is time for Democrats in the Senate to turn their sites towards reconciliation in order to accomplish their economic priorities. “