A Closer Look: The Critical Role of Consistency in Tax Policy Advocacy
It appears some of our allies have taken a liking to the Swiss cheese tax code that Trump and Republicans made worse with their 2025 tax law. As for us, we like to think we have a sharper palate.
A YouGov poll on California millionaires found support among the group for raising taxes on the wealthy, including majority support for Prop 40, the one-time, 5% tax on billionaires.
A Closer Look: No Tax on Everything—The Tax Mess Trump Has Left Us
I wanted to take the pen for this week’s Closer Look to share a piece that I wrote for my Substack last month in support of the Working Americans’ Tax Cut Act. I designed this legislation as the second part of the Patriotic Millionaires’ legislative platform, The MONEY Agenda.
A Member Spotlight: It’s high time for some common sense on taxes
My name is Todd Oppenheimer, and I’m one of 200 high-net-worth members of the Patriotic Millionaires. We usually write our weekly “Closer Look” newsletter in the collective voice of all our members, but this week the organization gave me the pen for a new offering we’ve started called “A Member Spotlight,” which offers a deep dive into issues around economic inequality from the perspective of one of our millionaire members.
A Closer Look: Ghosts, witches, vampires…and broligarchs?!
We are in the final days of “spooky season,” but luckily for us, we don’t get scared by all the ghosts, witches, vampires, and black cats that make a big appearance this time of year. But what we are spooked by is the inner workings of the minds of broligarchs.
A Closer Look: To billionaire or not to billionaire, that is the question
There are nuanced conversations to be had in defining how much is too much when it comes to personal wealth. Today, we’re ready to take on that challenge and start by saying this: $1 billion is more than enough.
A Closer Look: Extreme wealth is a global problem. We have global solutions.
If money knows no borders, it shouldn’t be surprising that neither does our message. It’s universal and relevant to countries across the globe. That’s why each fall and spring, it’s important to us that we take our message to some of the world’s brightest economic and financial leaders during the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Today is my birthday. Some people do not like their birthdays. I am not one of those people. I love my birthday. People have to be nice to you and you can pretty much do/say whatever you want (within reason). For my birthday this year, I asked the Patriotic Millionaires’ team if I could write this week’s Closer Look, our normally calm, measured, and eminently reasonable weekly thought piece about the economy. Shockingly they said yes, which I’m absolutely sure has nothing to do with the fact that I’m the boss.
On Wednesday morning, millions of Americans woke up to the news of a federal government shutdown. The government will remain closed until Senate Democrats and Republicans agree on a funding bill to pass, which isn’t looking likely anytime soon. While Trump can still do a lot of damage while the government is shuttered, it’s nonetheless a good opportunity to pause and reflect on the last nine months.
The “Good Billionaires” Abhor Anti-Oligarchy Tax Policy Too
Liberals often praise Warren Buffett for his statement about paying tax at a lower rate than his secretary, to show that not all billionaires are ridden with greed and won’t resist efforts to tax them more vigorously.
A Closer Look: The real culprit behind the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco is extreme inequality
It’s easy to point the finger at President Trump for all of the blatant attacks we’ve seen in recent days on the press and the right to free speech. We cannot ignore, however, that the real culprit behind the assaults on our democracy that we’re witnessing isn’t Trump, but rather the extreme concentration of wealth in America that enables him.
Adjusted Gross Income: The False Premise of Tax Apologists for the Ultrarich
This recent Youtube presentation by Steve Ballmer is a primer of sorts on taxation in the U.S. Ballmer, the 8th wealthiest American, whose wealth, depending on the day, is around $150 billion. He covers a lot of ground in the video, but focuses most on the federal income tax.
A Closer Look: Our money always wins in the tax arena
Last week, we told you the story about how our tax code pits our money against your sweat in a cage fight and how it’s crowned our money the winner. This week, we’re going to tell a different story about how our money always wins—even when there’s no cage fight at all.
A Closer Look: The Equal Tax Act is exactly what America needs
Yesterday, we teased that we would be sharing a forthcoming solution to the way our tax code unfairly pits our money against your sweat. Today, we’re happy to share what we’ve been working on to reach this very important moment.
Donald Trump dismissed the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), saying that she had been working in a partisan manner, against him with regard to the information released in the monthly employment situation report, particularly the total number of jobs created.
