Democrats Are Going After the Ultra-Rich Again and I've Got Some Thoughts

The most shocking, completely unexpected thing is happening right now.

After the ultra-rich, including Jeff Bezos and a litany of large corporations, helped bankroll Democrat candidates in 2020, the alligator they fed is now looking to bite their face-off. Leaked tax documents are being used to compare total wealth to effective tax rates last year (a stupid statistic as total wealth has already been taxed prior), and left-wing politicians are using the opportunity to push for higher corporate and personal tax rates.

Here’s Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Sen. Chris Murphy on the matter.

The ultra rich pay nothing in taxes, amassing their obscene wealth on the broken backs of everyday Americans paid poverty wages.

They're lucky we're only asking them to pay their fair share. When Bezos goes to space next month he can keep his ass there. https://t.co/Ld6cDhaKyp

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) June 8, 2021

The richest people in America pay no income taxes.

Warren Buffett 0.10%
Jeff Bezos: 0.98%
Elon Musk: 3.27%

Regular Americans are paying 20%+. It's just extraordinary how rigged the system is. Let's fix it.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 8, 2021

Now again, the numbers being discussed here are comparing apples to hand-grenades. Every bit of wealth those people hold has already been taxed at very high personal income tax rates when it was originally made. It’s not like they actually only paid a 0.10% tax rate last year on new income. Quite the opposite, in fact, with the top rate being almost 40%. Rather, the above figures are simply the amount of tax paid compared to the total wealth they’ve accrued. It’s a meaningless statistic in judging the supposed propriety of yearly income tax rates.

In short, the attacks are unfair and misleading, but you know what? I don’t care.

Really, I could not care less about Bezos and the like having to pay more taxes at this point. My desire to go to bat for these people sits firmly at zero. If these people are deprived of their third yacht, so be it. Republicans desperately tried to warn these woke, ultra-rich corporate heads that getting into bed with Democrats was a terrible idea that would backfire on them. They didn’t listen. Instead, they called us racists and spit in our faces. Now, they expect the GOP to ride to their rescue when it comes to tax rates. Nah, not gonna happen. If Democrats raise taxes on these people via reconciliation later this year, which is likely, that’s on them.

The abusive relationship is over. You want to be a woke Democrat? Pay the tax rates that woke Democrat politicians demand. Perhaps, after enough pain, some lessons will be learned. But for now, the reckoning needs to take place. These corporations and their wealthy owners and CEOs danced with the devil and now there are consequences to pay for that. It is not my job as a Republican to save them from that. They stomped all over us, told us we were bigots, and spent gobs of money to elect Democrats in direct opposition to everything we stood for.

Now, they get to enjoy their new friends. Sucks to suck.