As I’m sure you’ve seen, the debt ceiling is in the news again as President Elon Musk and VP Donald Trump try to figure out how to lead the incoming kakistocracy. We thought it would be helpful to explain the issue and the negotiations around it, if you’re looking for some light reading as you finish up your holiday shopping.
Last night, President Elon Musk and Vice President Donald Trump—yes, you read that right—joined forces to kill a funding deal crafted by congressional Republicans to keep the government from shutting down on Friday. Good riddance. If Democrats are going to provide the majority of votes for a short-term government funding bill, it shouldn’t be one that would help unwind one of the signature accomplishments of the Biden era: cracking down on rich tax cheats.
Today, the Patriotic Millionaires joined forces with the Revolving Door Project to launch a grassroots letter campaign – housed at FreeCharlesLittlejohn.com – to urge President Biden to commute the prison sentence of Charles Littlejohn. For this week’s Closer Look, I want to tell you about Charles Littlejohn, make my case as to why he deserves clemency from the president, and do my best to encourage you to join our cause.
If you’re looking to do some holiday shopping this weekend, we have a great tip for you: order a copy of Pay the People! Why Fair Pay is Good for Business and Great for America from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop!
If lawmakers take their oath to uphold and protect the law seriously, they must unconditionally support properly funding the IRS. Otherwise, they are, by definition, criminal apologists – or, in the case of the current GOP presidential nominee, criminals themselves.
Tech broligarchs’ weird adoration of Donald Trump is problematic for a number of reasons, but their fears about having taxes levied on their unrealized capital gains may explain why they’re so willing to abandon the basic tenets of democracy to support their fellow billionaire.
Turns out, the biggest pro-worker piece of Donald Trump’s proposed economic agenda isn’t very pro-worker after all. On June 9, at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Trump pledged to eliminate taxes on tipped income if he wins the White House again.
What You Need to Know About Kamala Harris’ Record on Taxes
As of this writing, Vice President Kamala Harris has secured support from enough delegates to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for president at the Democratic National Convention next month. With Harris now at the top of the ticket, we’d like to use this week’s Closer Look to explore her record on taxes.
The Economist is Wrong About Unrealized Capital Gains
I have been a subscriber to and reader of The Economist for almost 20 years. I have appreciated their balanced and intelligent coverage of world events, with a perspective of classical economic liberalism. Yet I find myself in the unusual position of taking issue with two of their recent articles: “How to tax billionaires – and how not to” and “America’s rich never sell their assets. How should they be taxed?”
Republicans have done a lot of damage to the American tax code over the years by giving massive and harmful cuts to the wealthy and corporations. But if they win back the White House and get the chance to implement Project 2025, that damage will be supercharged to another level.
We’ve known for a while that next to none of the spoils from the 2017 Trump tax bill’s infamous corporate tax cut trickled down to workers. But now, thanks to recent reporting from some of our allies, we’re more certain than ever that the cut’s benefits instead gushed up to wealthy shareholders like many of us.
We here at the Patriotic Millionaires like to use Independence Day to remind ourselves what patriotism means and why we go about calling ourselves “patriotic” in the first place. And judging by recent events at the Supreme Court, this refresher on American patriotism is sorely needed.
Congress needs to step in here, and pass new legislation which either makes the NLRB have a quicker decision-making process or specifically determine the criteria for getting an injunction to protect workers. Any decision that takes years is essentially justice denied because workers at places like Starbucks have almost surely moved on to some new employment in the meantime, and might not even want to work at their old companies anymore.
We’ve known for a while now that our desire for lawmakers around the world to raise taxes on wealthy people like us isn’t fringe. But now, we officially have the numbers to back it up – and a blueprint for how international leaders can institute minimum standards for taxing the global rich.
