No Tax-*Rate* Increases On Billionaires, Kyrsten Sinema? Liz Warren Has A Whole New Tax For That!
We love the smell of class war in the morning!
Watch out, bloated plutocrats: Senate Democrats are coming for you. To help pay for the Build Back Better Act, Democrats rolled out two plans that would go after vast wealth that corporations and billionaires try to hide away from ever being taxed; each of the new plans is expected to bring in hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years.
The first plan, to impose a 15 percent minimum tax on corporate profits over a billion dollars, was introduced by Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Angus King of Maine; it has the support of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has blocked other tax increases that were originally proposed as part of Build Back Better. So that's going to be helpful in moving it along should no other "centrist" Dem decide "nah."
The second plan, from Warren and Wyden, would go after the very richest Americans' "unrealized gains" on assets every year, instead of only collecting capital gains taxes when those assets are sold; it's one of the ways the very wealthy get richer without paying income taxes. (They never sell. They borrow their fuck-you money against their stocks as collateral.)
Both plans, in addition to helping to fund Build Back Better, have some real class war appeal, since they address the tax loopholes that widen the gap between the filthy rich and ordinary American taxpayers. As Wyden said in a statement on the proposed billionaire tax,
There are two tax codes in America. [...] The first is mandatory for workers who pay taxes out of every pay check. The second is voluntary for billionaires who defer paying taxes for years, if not indefinitely.
The minimum corporate tax plan would make sure that hugely profitable corporations can't get away with avoiding taxes. It would apply only to companies that report more than a billion dollars in profits each year, over a three-year period, and would impose an across-the-board 15 percent minimum tax on those profits. That's a big heckin' deal, as Wyden explained in a statement (the man has a very busy staff):
The most profitable corporations in the country are often the worst offenders when it comes to paying their fair share. Year after year they report record profits to shareholders and pay little to no taxes. Our proposal would tackle the most egregious corporate tax dodging by ensuring the biggest companies pay a minimum tax.
The statement specifically pointed out that freaking Amazon has reported over $45 billion in profits over the last three years, but has gotten away with an "effective tax rate of just 4.3% – well below the 21% corporate tax rate."
CNBC notes that the proposal is similar to an idea Joe Biden originally proposed as part of his economic agenda, but which hadn't previously been included in the reconciliation bill. That proposal had been aimed at corporations reporting over $2 billion in profits in a given year, and didn't include the three-year reporting timeline in the senators' bill. The Senate proposal will apply to more companies, but with the three-consecutive-year reporting framework, it'll also be aimed more clearly at corporations that are consistently reporting huge profits.
The senators said the tax would apply to about 200 of the biggest and most profitable US corporations, and that it would still allow companies to claim a variety of business tax credits, such as
R&D, clean energy, and housing tax credits – and include some flexibilities for companies to carry forward losses, utilize foreign tax credits, and claim a minimum tax credit against regular tax in future years.
They just wouldn't be able to completely avoid taxation through such credits this way, a bit like the current alternative minimum tax prevents very wealthy households from paying zero in income tax.
The Treasury Department would be given the job of deciding some of the details of how and when the tax on profits would apply. You want a draft of the legislation? Here's a draft of the legislation, nerds.
Warren and Wyden's "billionaire tax" would similarly seek to tax wealth that's normally not subject to taxation, even though it's a very real source of riches for the One Percent. NPR explains how it would work:
The tax proposal would apply to just about 700 taxpayers, Democrats say — people who earn more than $100 million per year or who have more than $1 billion in assets for three straight years. It would require them to give the IRS a detailed account of how much the assets they own gained or lost each year, a process called mark to market.
Most of the gains on tradeable assets like stocks would be taxed at the existing capital gains rate, which is currently 20% for individuals earning over $445,850.
But unlike current capital gains taxes, which only apply when liquid assets like investments or real estate are sold, or "realized," the new tax would be applied annually. As the New York Times points out, even though the very wealthy do in theory have to pay taxes on capital gains eventually (except when they die, and then their heirs avoid cap gains taxes too), those assets generate big money all the same, "as vast capital stores that can be borrowed off to live virtually income tax-free." And since there are so currently so many ways for the super wealthy to avoid taxation altogether, then it's damn well time to make sure they pay their fair share.
Yes, even if that scares them into putting all their money into paintings, ranches, or Pokemon cards, as Mitt Romney warned us.
We should also point out that the new proposal is different from the wealth tax that Warren proposed when she was running for president. Under that plan, people with more than $50 million in assets would have that wealth taxed at two percent annually, with a three-percent tax on fortunes worth over a billion dollars. In case you had a scorecard.
Now, there are some potential complications for the billionaire tax proposal, as the Times explains, like whether it would be legal at all:
The courts would have to determine whether unrealized gains in wealth can be considered income, which the 16th Amendment allows the federal government to tax.
And even if the two new proposals make it past legal challenges, it's dead certain that creative tax lawyers would find all new creative ways for corporations and the wealthy to avoid paying at least some of the tax, because America is all about helping our long-suffering super rich avoid taxes. That's not a reason not to whack those moles anyway, until they run out of loopholes to hide in.
The thing we like about both of these proposals is that they are at least a start at addressing the basic unfairness that Wyden pointed out: The rich have finagled advantages in the tax code that simply aren't available to most of us, and those advantages have only served to widen the gaps between the investor class and ordinary Americans. Hell, that sense of being cheated was one of the things that fueled Trumpism, along with all the racism, of course. Emphasizing that these taxes will begin to whittle down some of the unearned advantages of America's corporate overlords sounds like a winning strategy to us — and when wingnuts ask why we're so mean to Job Creators, we can ask them when the last time was that they were able to hide most of their wealth from the IRS because they hired a top-notch law firm.
Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, help us out with a $5 or $10 monthly donation, and we'll keep bringing you tips for sauces and glazes that will bring out all the flavor in the rich we'll be eating.
LIVE: Merrick Garland In The Senate!
Lock somebody up.
Here's another hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland in Congress, this time in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Maybe they can get him to lock some MAGA January 6 idiots up or indict Donald Trump. Oh, there's some new John Eastman evidence he could look at maybe! Dunno, just lock somebody up.
Watch with Wonkette!
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John Eastman, Coup-Plotting Lunatic, Almost Time For Your Subpoena!
Come for the headline, stay for the hidden camera action.
You write one measly coup memo detailing how an absolute fucking loser can steal an election he didn't win (because America loathes him and didn't vote for him), you get a subpoena from Congress? Unfair!
But that's reportedly about to happen for John Eastman, coup-plotting galaxy brain.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is expected to subpoena John Eastman, the pro-Trump legal scholar who outlined scenarios for denying Joe Biden the presidency, according to the panel's chairman.
"It will happen," Chair Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said in an interview Tuesday of a subpoena for Eastman, who played a key role in the legal operation that was run out of a "command center" at the Willard Hotel in Washington in the days and hours leading up to Jan. 6. Thompson did not provide a timeline for when the subpoena will be issued.
The Washington Post reports that they are at the "documents and communications" stage with Eastman, and also notes that Eastman could of course avoid the unpleasantness of a subpoena if he just cooperated with the committee. But then he'd have to act like a law-abiding grown-up, which isn't really the MAGA way.
Eastman, who's to our knowledge never been on the right or morally decent side of an issue — defending Uganda's anti-gay laws and saying Kamala Harris isn't a real American come to mind — has been trying to have it both ways lately. As the Post notes, when it's convenient, he denied his own memos like Peter denied Christ:
In recent months, Eastman has distanced himself from the memos, telling the National Review last week that the options he outlined did not represent his advice. He said he wrote the memos at the request of "somebody in the legal team" whose name he could not recall.
His colleagues at the mouthbreather think tank he calls home, the Claremont Institute, are also trying to launder his soiled reputation.
But when he's got a different audience, he warbles a different tune. The Post reports that he said these words to David Brody at the Christian Broadcasting Network just last month:
"There's all sorts of evidence out there and the notion that anybody just raising these problems with the election is somehow contributing to an insurrection? Look, if in fact the election was stolen then it's the people who stole the election not the people that are shining a light on the illegalities that occurred that are undermining our democratic institutions," Eastman said.
Fascist Big-Lie-Promoting clown man say what?
And in related news, remember undercover reporter Lauren Windsor, who just recently got Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott on tape bragging about how much he banned abortion?
Well, she met John Eastman recently, by pretending to be a deplorable MAGA idiot, which is her method. Look what he told her at a Claremont Institute gala last weekend:
EXCLUSIVE: Author of Jan 6 coup memo John Eastman told us Mike Pence didn't take his solid legal advice & overturn… https://t.co/zOPsRyRJs8— Lauren Windsor (@Lauren Windsor) 1635283625.0
Oh, you're gonna want to watch the whole thing, especially the parts where he talks about how awesome his dimwitted memo really was, how "there's no question" his legal reasoning was solid, and how Mike Pence only didn't steal the election because he's "establishment."
And there's another video on its way this morning:
New video coming tomorrow am. Jan 6 coup memo author John Eastman tells us: 1. Trump planned to go to the Capitol… https://t.co/EnOocVDFaf— Lauren Windsor (@Lauren Windsor) 1635298678.0
Hoo boy. We'll update this post when that video drops!
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Outrageous Things That People Have Tried To Sell Online! Tabs, Wed., Oct. 27, 2021
I'd buy that for a dollar! It's tabs!
Trigger warning for WHAAAAAAT??????
The judge in Kyle Rittenhouse's trial says lawyers cannot call the 2 people he killed "victims." Rittenhouse kille… https://t.co/h9CKU3OPKH— AJ+ (@AJ+) 1635262260.0
Motion by Claudette Colvin, 82, to expunge her juvenile record of ... refusing to stand up for a white girl on the bus in 1955, for which she is still on probation. (Motion)
Merrick Garland does not seem to be doing his job in investigating those who plotted the January 6 coup (Elie Mystal at The Nation). Meanwhile, threats to elections officials are getting worse. (CNN)
Hey, you know how we couldn't get rid of private insurance with Obamacare because it was too heavily enmeshed throughout the economy? We really shouldn't stand up a paid leave program from scratch if we're going to just make it private insurers, that's dumb stupid and bullshit. (People's Policy Project)
As a pay-for for Build Back Better, Elizabeth Warren's 15 percent minimum tax on corporations with more than $1 billion in profits heart-hug-emoji. (Warren Senate)
More on what happened on the set of Rust, when Alec Baldwin shot and killed the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. There had already been prop gun injuries, and the assistant director who gave Baldwin the gun has been fired before for prop gun injuries on a different movie. Meanwhile, the camera crew had just walked out over unfair labor practices on the set. Baldwin is a producer. There sure does seem to be a lot going on. — LA Times
SPOILER —
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, put it more bluntly in a text message to his chief of staff Merle Madrid: "This rationale is asinine. I should vote no."
— He did not vote no! (Columbus Dispatch)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott loves The Troops so much he's slashing their benefits so he can spend $300 million for his Border photo ops. — Army Times
Princess Mako — no longer Princess Mako — married her boyfriend and it made me cry just a tiny. Also fuck entirely any protesters who think they are supposed to get a say. (Reuters) Meanwhile eighty-three Twitter accounts are responsible for seventy percent of the abuse hurled at Meghan Markle and her husband, Prince Harry (if he is still prince, I don't even know). Not bots: real people whose life mission it is to (get paid to?) tweet nasty shit at the Black feminist princess (if she is still a princess, I don't know that either). (Buzzfeed)
Yeah, I don't know. We desperately need progressive media with money behind it, but also "Shadow" fucked off the Iowa results like WHOA ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING, maybe they could give all the money to us instead. (Do not give us all the money, I do not need that kind of grief.) — Axios
The worst year to be alive was not actually 2020, it was 536. Thanks science! — Accuweather
This is the Amish grocery store I drive 30 miles to as a special treat to buy every kind of candy and every kind of everything. I had assumed we all call it the Amish grocery store but that it was really the sort-of-Amishy Hutterites, but the Internet tells me no, there is a community of about 150 Amish people right in Mission, where we also get our Amish pepper starts from the Amish nursery that is also not Hutterite, I now realize somewhat belatedly. (Flathead Beacon)
Shiny! Meso-American monuments revealed by by SHARKS with LASER BEAMS! (Not sharks. Just laser beams.) — Science
An oral history of the beloved Russian classic "Remake of Married With Children." (Mel Magazine)
And a rare tabs hed, it's Outrageous Things People Have Tried to Sell Online! I would buy all of them, particularly the nightmare factories with teeth. — Nature World Today
