It’s been just over 48 hours since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law, and Republican pundits and lawmakers are already making it Target #1 in their efforts to take back Congress this November. Despite the fact that the IRA is a fantastic piece of legislation that makes our climate, healthcare system, and tax code better, conservatives want the American people to … Continue reading The IRA – Fact vs. Fiction
Below is a letter sent to Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on July 28, 2022 by Jeffrey R. Huggett, a member of the Patriotic Millionaires. Dear Bill, Like so many others recently, I read your blog announcing substantial personal contributions to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Whereas I am thrilled about the important work you fund … Continue reading A Letter to Bill Gates
Less than an hour ago, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – the Democrats’ new healthcare, climate, and tax reform package – into law. This is a historic and monumental achievement that will likely be remembered as one of Biden’s biggest legislative victories. One of the most important elements of the IRA is the $80 billion in additional funding that the bill allocates to … Continue reading 87,000 IRS agents are not coming for you
Last week, Senator Manchin blindsided his Democratic colleagues when he reversed course on his previous demands that their agenda be focused on tax reform and declared that he would not vote to raise taxes on the rich or massive corporations. In doing so, he dashed Democrats’ hopes to pass any sort of meaningful tax legislation before November. He also ironically proved, by showing the country … Continue reading Joe Manchin Just Showed Why We Need the OLIGARCH Act
It’s been a big week for economic news. From drama in Congress over the Build Back Better negotiations to continued economic strife affecting working Americans to new tax benefits offered to the rich, our economy is steadily moving in further favor of the wealthy, and the federal government appears ill-equipped to rise to the occasion. This week, we’ll look into how our current economy, policies, … Continue reading The Economy is Bad. Congress Needs to Fix It
If you didn’t already know the federal tax law is a loophole-ridden mess that lets the ultra-rich pay a fraction of what they should, you could figure it out from this recent ProPublica headline: The Great Inheritors: How Three Families Shielded Their Fortunes From Taxes for Generations. Or, better yet, this one: How Susquehanna’s Jeff Yass Avoided $1 Billion in Taxes. Of course, if you’re … Continue reading Time To End the Capital Gains Rate Giveaway
This past Monday was Tax Day, which is undoubtedly no American’s favorite holiday. But the pain of Tax Day is not shared by all. While the typical American pays a good amount of every paycheck in taxes and hopes to get a refund after submitting their return, the ultra-wealthy have a variety of tools at their disposal that allows them to keep Tax Day virtually … Continue reading Why Billionaires Don’t Stress About Tax Day
Billionaires just can’t seem to stay out of the headlines. This time, however, it’s not their space trips or superyacht squabbles that are making the news: it’s their tax avoidance strategies. We recently learned that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and the world’s richest man, donated billions in Tesla shares to charity this past November and is set to pay roughly $11 billion in income tax. While this might seem like good news, … Continue reading We must end billionaire tax avoidance
Republicans have been working since the day President Biden took office to convince voters they should be given control of the House and Senate, but, for the first time, we got a look at what they’d actually do there. While Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to answer questions about what the Republican platform might look like (When asked what he would do with control … Continue reading What’s in the GOP’s Horrifying Senate Platform
For the 8 years that I have been a member of the Patriotic Millionaires, my wealthy friends (almost all of whom are conservative Republicans) have asked me the same question over and over again: “So are you saying that because you believe that we wealthy people should be paying more taxes and I don’t agree, you think that makes you more patriotic than me?” My … Continue reading The Patriotic Millionaires Deserve Our Name
Today, our organization announced our endorsement of nine Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives, a group that includes seven previously endorsed incumbents, and, for the first time ever, two candidates facing off against Democratic incumbents in a primary challenge. The seven champions of our economic justice mission that our group is re-endorsing are Representative Colin Allred (TX-32), Representative Cindy Axne (IA-3), Representative Josh Harder … Continue reading Patriotic Millionaires Endorse Democratic Primary Challengers
Happy New Year! With a new year comes new challenges and opportunities, and it’s safe to say that there will be no shortage of either in the coming weeks. As you probably know, shortly before the end of the year, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin declared in a Fox News interview that, after months of negotiations, he could not vote to support President Biden’s Build … Continue reading Democrats need Manchin on board before it’s too late
If the last year has taught us anything, it’s that we can no longer ignore the widening disparity between the richest Americans and the rest of the country. We’ve seen billionaire wealth (and some billionaires themselves) skyrocket to unprecedented levels, while most Americans are just struggling to get by. This is simply unsustainable – we are reaching a point where inequality is so extreme that … Continue reading Inequality is Out of Control
As Democrats in the Senate continue to debate the final details of what should be included in the Build Back Better Act, we want to take this week to shine a spotlight on why this piece of legislation is so important. Inequality in the United States and around the world is out of control. The recently-released 2022 World Inequality Report details just how bad this problem has gotten, and … Continue reading Inequality will not be solved with tax breaks for the rich
Even though Congress is out of session this week, the fight for fair taxation continues. House and Senate Democrats are still deciding what to do with the State and Local Tax (SALT) cap, which sets a limit on the amount of state and local taxes that taxpayers can deduct from their federal tax bills. The House plan would raise the cap from $10,000 to $80,000, … Continue reading Want to fix the economy? Tax the rich
This week, the big fight in Congress is over the SALT cap. Since the passage of the Trump tax bill in 2017, wealthy taxpayers in higher tax states like New York and New Jersey have had a cap on the amount of state and local taxes that they can deduct from their federal tax bill. Pressured by a cadre of blue state billionaires looking to … Continue reading Fighting over SALT and the Virginia Election
Momentum is building this week in Congress behind President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda as House and Senate Democrats negotiate how they are going to raise revenue linked to the roughly $2 trillion new spending that the reconciliation bill would introduce. Yesterday, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden officially unveiled his Billionaires Income Tax plan which, as we highlighted earlier this week, would tax the richest Americans … Continue reading Corporate Minimum Tax and Millionaire Surtax Highlight Biden’s Reconciliation Framework
As we approach nearly two years of a pandemic, a booming stock market, and massive profits for numerous corporations, many American workers are finding themselves falling further behind as wages continue to stagnate and inflation rises. With pressure mounting, Americans are fed up. From Hollywood to Holler, American workers are rising up to demand better pay and better working conditions. I hope we are witnessing … Continue reading Choose the Side Fighting for American Workers
Democrats in Congress are close to finalizing a deal on the Biden Build Back Better Agenda, and they’re considering including one of the most significant tax changes in decades – the Billionaires Income Tax – in their reconciliation bill. This tax, also known as mark-to-market, would target only about 700 billionaires (forget the top 1%, this is the top 0.0002%), and force them to start … Continue reading Pass the Billionaire Wealth Tax
Things are getting interesting in Washington, where Democrats are considering including one of the most significant tax changes in decades – a Billionaires Income Tax – in their budget reconciliation bill. This Billionaires Income Tax, also known as mark-to-market, would mark a historic change in the way that the ultra-wealthy are taxed. It targets only the absolute richest Americans, about 700 billionaires (forget the top … Continue reading Defending the Billionaires Income Tax