Today, 11 rogue Democrats are continuing their fight to block progress for the entire nation in order to ensure that the wealthiest people in the country continue to receive preferential treatment in the tax code. If the current House Ways and Means Committee proposal becomes law, billionaires in America will pay a lower tax rate than working people and inequality, the root cause of social unrest, will continue to destabilize the country. The Patriotic Millionaires view their actions as profound betrayal of the country in its hour of greatest need.
Please see below the letter the Patriotic Millionaires sent to the White House yesterday, requesting that President Biden take any and all actions necessary to stop these Democrats and to pass his agenda.
—–
Dear President Biden,
On behalf of the Patriotic Millionaires, we are writing to ask you to stand firmly behind your entire $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Agenda and to use the full force of your Administration to ensure its passage, including taking any and all actions necessary to stop the 11 rogue members of your own party currently attempting to block your agenda.
As you well know, the aptly-named Sabotage Caucus, which includes 9 House members and 2 Senators, seeks to block progress for the entire nation in order to ensure that the wealthiest people in the country continue to receive preferential treatment in the tax code. The Patriotic Millionaires view their actions as profound betrayal of the country in its hour of greatest need. We believe the vast majority of decent Americans agree with our assessment.
Our nation can obviously afford the investments that you have called for. Frankly, what it can’t afford is a continuation of the status quo. Those who refuse to make the necessary investments in order to protect the extraordinary wealth of the few at the top are, at best, misguided and wrong. Their efforts to perpetuate the unfair advantage the uber-wealthy receive in the tax code should be challenged head on.
There is simply no intellectual, moral, or economic justification for the public position these lawmakers have taken: that it is better to block your agenda than it is to raise taxes on billionaires.
Please see HERE a Politico piece from Friday detailing our plans to hold these politicians accountable for their betrayal. Please also see our initial correspondence to the Democratic caucus HERE and our subsequent correspondence to the House Ways and Means Committee HERE.
It is incomprehensible to our members – and to most Americans – that 11 members of your own party would block critical investments in our future in order to ensure that the wealthiest people in the country continue to enjoy an unfair advantage in the tax code. These misguided lawmakers seem to believe the future will be won by holding firmly to the past. They are wrong.
To be clear, the Patriotic Millionaires organization will actively and aggressively challenge Democrats who refuse to support your agenda, and we will actively recruit other high net worth Americans to do the same.
Our country is already suffering destabilizing levels of inequality. The Republican Tax Code, which passed in 2017 on a party line, ensures that our nation will become even more unequal even more quickly over time.
A year from now, your party and your legacy will be on the ballot. Democrats will either be the party that took bold, effective action to meet an historic crisis, or it will be the party that caved to 11 rogue members in order to protect the status quo and appease the wealthiest people in the country with billions of dollars of unfair tax breaks. Unless they are stopped, the 11 members of the Sabotage Caucus will ensure the following:
-
That Americans who actually work for a living pay almost double the tax rate as wealthy Americans like us who live off of our investments;
-
That our heirs will continue to inherit billions of dollars tax free;
-
That corporations receive tax breaks for moving plants and equipment overseas; and
-
That the wealthiest people in the country will never suffer any consequence for illegally avoiding taxes.
That hardly seems a winning platform for the Democratic Party. We believe that if Democrats do not make people like us pay our fair share, they will pay at the ballot box.
We stand eager to do anything we can to help you. Thank you so much for your steadfast commitment to the future of this great nation.
Sincerely,
Morris Pearl, Chair
Erica Payne, President and Founder