MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: Wednesday, July 26, 2023
CONTACT: Madison Donzis | madison@unbendablemedia.com
Representatives Barbara Lee, Summer Lee, Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman Introduce the OLIGARCH Act with Economic Leaders, Members of Patriotic Millionaires
The Landmark Legislation Aims to Contain Extreme Inequality, Limit Democracy-Threatening Wealth Concentration, and Calm Social Unrest
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, July 26, Representative Barbara Lee (CA-12), Representative Summer Lee (PA-12), Representative Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), and Representative Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) are joined by the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net worth Americans united in their concern over historic and destabilizing levels of economic inequality, as well as a large coalition of allied organizations, in introducing the Oppose Limitless Inequality Growth and Reverse Community Harms (OLIGARCH) Act, a tax proposal focused exclusively on containing inequality and limiting democracy-threatening wealth concentration.
Co-sponsors of the proposal include Representatives Nadler, Chuy Garcia, Grijalva, Omar, Schakowsky, and Huffman.
The landmark legislation would use the tax code to reduce extreme wealth concentration in the United States by tying tax rates to levels of wealth inequality.
This transformative policy would introduce a unique, first-of-its-kind mechanism into the tax code, scaling taxation of extreme wealth to the level of economic inequality at any given moment. Over the last four decades, wealth concentration in America has grown to levels not seen since the Gilded Age. The OLIGARCH Act is designed to address this inequality, ensure social stability, and protect the viability of democratic capitalism for the next 250 years.
“Extreme wealth inequality has become an existential threat to our country,” said Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc. “American oligarchs have used their wealth to accumulate an unprecedented level of political power, which they’ve used to amass even greater wealth. Without decisive action, this vicious cycle of concentrated power and money will dismantle our system of democratic capitalism, and with it, our way of life. We must stop this cycle by passing the OLIGARCH Act as soon as possible.”
The OLIGARCH Act would:
- Wax and wane along with wealth concentration, rather than in response to legislative tweaking. It would intensify during periods of extreme inequality, when wealth at the top is increasing faster than wealth in the middle. But when median household wealth increases and inequality moderates to an acceptable level, the tax would taper off to near non-existence.
- The threshold for taxation would have a clear connection to the objective of taxing only those whose wealth, if allowed to continue growing unchecked, could pose a significant threat to democracy and our society.
- The tax should be highly progressive, asking much more from the ultra-ultra-wealthy than it does from those who are just ultra-wealthy.
It would have four tax brackets:
- 2% for all wealth between 1,000 and 10,000 times median wealth;
- 4% for all wealth between 10,000 and 100,000 times median wealth;
- 6% for all wealth between 100,000 and 1,000,000 times median wealth;
- 8% on all wealth over 1,000,000 times median wealth.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://pm-mig.test/wp-content/uploads/OLIGARCH-Act-1-Pager-Final.pdf
FOR A COPY OF THE LEGISLATION, email Madison at madison@unbendablemedia.com.