Robert Reich
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Serious question: How can you watch America’s billionaires get 62% richer during the pandemic and not support a wealth tax?
Retweeted by Robert Reich The “stepped-up basis” tax loophole allows heirs of billionaires to avoid capital gains taxes on inherited assets.
Closing this loophole is an absolute no-brainer. But Dems on the House Ways and Means Committee wouldn’t even touch it.
This should be a national scandal.
Serious question: How can you watch America’s billionaires get 62% richer during the pandemic and not support a wealth tax?
Who else thinks we should start investing in the American people instead of blowing our cash on endless wars and tax breaks for the rich?
We desperately need to get big money out of politics.
And we can’t forget these names come 2022:
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Kurt Schrader (OR-5)
Kathleen Rice (NY-4)
All should be primaried by people who care more about advancing the public good than protecting private profits. twitter.com/RBReich/status…
Unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID.
29 TIMES.
Please get vaccinated.
Can anyone tell me why House Democrats are proud of their plan to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5%?
Let me remind you that it was 35% under Obama.
This isn’t progressive. Or impressive.
Dems need to do better.
Alternative headline: World's richest man pledges to give away less than what he makes in one day...by the end of the year. twitter.com/wealth/status/…
PSA: Democrats’ tax plan doesn’t tax wealth, but only yearly income. Here's why that's a problem:
Jeff Bezos’ salary is $81,840.
But his wealth is $201,000,000,000.
Failing to tax wealth is precisely what the billionaires want.
ICYMI: Joe Manchin founded two coal companies in the 1980s, which are led today by his son.
His family’s fortune relies on allowing the fossil fuel industry to keep wreaking havoc on our planet.
Retweeted by Robert Reich Don’t tell me the filibuster is written in stone. In recent years, 161 exceptions have been enacted allowing measures to pass the Senate by a simple majority without being subject to the filibuster. Why shouldn’t voting rights be an exception, too?
Retweeted by Robert Reich Vaccination rates:
France: 72 percent
Canada: 68.7 percent
Italy: 66.3 percent
UK: 65.9 percent
Germany: 62.2 percent
America: 53.9 percent
Is this what they mean by American exceptionalism?
Retweeted by Robert Reich Don’t tell me the filibuster is written in stone. In recent years, 161 exceptions have been enacted allowing measures to pass the Senate by a simple majority without being subject to the filibuster. Why shouldn’t voting rights be an exception, too?
Let's get one thing straight: There is nothing “moderate” about bucking a proposal that is supported by your own party, your own constituents, and the majority of Americans across the political spectrum.
We desperately need to get big money out of politics.
Two of the three Democrats who tanked the party's proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices — Scott Peters and Kurt Schrader — together have received more than $1.7 million in donations from Big Pharma.
Always follow the money.
If you paid just $1 in federal taxes in 2020, you paid more than FedEx, Michaels, Nike, Salesforce, and 51 other massive corporations.
Seems fair, right?
If we learn anything from this pandemic, it's that:
1) Workers are always essential.
2) Health care is a basic right.
3) Conspiracy theories can be deadly.
4) The stock market is not the economy.
5) Wages are too low to get by on.
6) Billionaires are not the answer.
Is anyone else sick of billionaires using philanthropy as PR to cover up exploitative business practices?
We don’t want their charity. We want a wealth tax.
For context, $203.7 million is less than what Jeff Bezos makes in one day.
Billionaire philanthropy won't save us.
Tax the rich. twitter.com/wealth/status/…
House and Senate Democrats: The WEALTH of the richest 400 people in America has increased $1.4 trillion since 2019. That's where the money is.
Don't just tax raise taxes on INCOME. (Bezos's wage last year was a bit over $80K. Almost all his gains were in shares of stock.)
Retweeted by Robert Reich I don’t know who needs to hear this, but inequality will continue to spiral out of control so long as the Democrats' tax plan tackles income and not wealth.
The super-rich use the stepped-up basis loophole to avoid paying more than $40 billion in taxes each year. It's one of the key ways dynastic wealth is built over generations. So why does the House Ways and Means tax plan ignore it?
Corporate lobbyists and campaign contributions.
Vaccination rates:
France: 72 percent
Canada: 68.7 percent
Italy: 66.3 percent
UK: 65.9 percent
Germany: 62.2 percent
America: 53.9 percent
Is this what they mean by American exceptionalism?
With 53.9 percent of the America fully vaccinated, we've now fallen behind France (72 percent), Canada (68.7 percent), Italy (66.3 percent), the UK (65.9 percent) and Germany (62.2 percent).
Why? What's unique about the US? Trumpist media lies and/or pure selfishness, or what?
ICYMI: Joe Manchin founded two coal companies in the 1980s, which are led today by his son.
His family’s fortune relies on allowing the fossil fuel industry to keep wreaking havoc on our planet.
To: @Sen_JoeManchin
From: @RBReich
Your compromise on voting rights has some merit. But if you can't produce 10 senate Republicans to support it, IMHO you have a patriotic duty to support changing the filibuster so voting rights can get through the Senate with 51 votes.
Retweeted by Robert Reich Okay, not a stupor. But in danger of complacency — assuming that with so many Dems out here, no Republican would stand a chance.
Newsom has survived the recall. He made it about Trump and the pandemic. CA Dems awoke from their stupor. The state GOP was hobbled by a hollowed-out party apparatus and a turn to the hard right.
But I'm getting too old for these high stakes nail-biters.
P.S. Californians, don't forget to vote in person before 8 p.m. today, or mail in or drop off your ballot as soon as you can. The stakes are too high to sit this one out.
It’s tempting to laugh at the absurdity of Elder’s ploy, but it’s a grave warning sign of how Republicans plan to run campaigns from here on out. Any result they don’t like will be written off as fraudulent.
We must keep fighting back against Republicans’ authoritarian agenda.
Yesterday, before results were released in the California recall, Larry Elder’s campaign launched a website promoting baseless claims that the election was stolen.
We've reached the point where Republicans don't even wait until polls close before claiming an election was rigged.
For the record, poverty dropped last year despite the pandemic -- because of government aid. Lesson: Poverty is a policy choice.
Retweeted by Robert Reich California is burning and Louisiana is under water, but conservative Democrats are threatening to oppose a budget package that invests in climate action.
Can we please stop calling these people “moderates?”
To: @Sen_JoeManchin
From: @RBReich
Your compromise on voting rights has some merit. But if you can't produce 10 senate Republicans to support it, IMHO you have a patriotic duty to support changing the filibuster so voting rights can get through the Senate with 51 votes.
I’m not interested in hearing what this country can or cannot pay for when the system enables Jeff Bezos to rake in about $149,353 every minute.
Retweeted by Robert Reich Elon Musk’s $138B in pandemic wealth gains could cover the cost of tuition for 5.5M community college students AND feed 29M low-income public school kids.
After those expenses, Musk would still be $4B richer than he was before Covid.
Taxing the rich should not be controversial.
Jeff Bezos' wealth increased by $8.4 billion in *one day* this summer.
Meanwhile, our tax code enabled him to pay zero federal income taxes in 2007 AND 2011.
The system is rigged for the rich.
PSA: There is absolutely nothing “moderate” about obstructing the most critical investment in the American people since the New Deal.
Want to know how we pay for the game-changing reconciliation package? The bill raises taxes on billionaires, who, let me remind you, added $1.8 trillion to their wealth during the pandemic alone.
What if I told you that taxing the rich is more important than allowing millions of children to go without food in the richest country in the world?
Let's get one thing straight: If Democrats won't pass a tax bill that addresses the staggering accumulation of dynastic wealth at the top, it's because the wealthy have too much hold over the Democratic Party. (They already own the Republican Party.)
Note: the drop in poverty can be seen in the "supplemental poverty measure," which takes government aid into account. The "official" poverty rate, which most media are highlighting today, rose by about a percentage point.
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