The billionaires assembled at Davos are frightened by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez!
She proposed raising taxes to 70% for those who have over $10 million a year in income. The tax kicks in over $10 million.
Poor dears!
Attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, are worried about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). So says CNBC, which reports that the multimillionaires and billionaires at the annual elite gathering are all but quaking in their expensive winter boots at the thought of her proposed 70 percent marginal income tax rate. “It’s scary,” claimed Scott Minerd, a high-ranking executive at investment firm Guggenheim Partners. Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio predicted the call for a 70 percent top tax rate would pick up steam ahead of the 2020 election. Michael Dell, the head of Dell Technologies, with an estimated net worth of slightly more than $31 billion, proclaimed that it wasn’t necessary. “I do not think it will help the growth of the U.S. economy.”
But no one could top Ken Moelis, the head of the Moelis & Co investment bank, who claimed the freshman congresswoman’s proposal would “be disastrous for the economy,” because it would take away the incentive to work. He also asked:” “What’s going to happen to the two-workforce family? You forget where 70 percent starts to kick in.”
For the record, Ocasio-Cortez would like to see that top marginal rate kick in at $10 million. I don’t know too many families earning that sort of money even if they send all their children and assorted pets to work, and I doubt you do either, unless you live next door to the owner of a hedge fund.
If their taxes above $10 million are raised, they will have NO incentive to work!
They will be the idle rich! A hamburger at Davos costs $56!
How can a person scrape by on only $10 million plus 30% of added income?
This is what they should worry about. OXFAM just reported that 26 people have more wealth than 3.8 Billion people.
“THE COMBINED WEALTH OF the 26 richest people in the world is the same as the combined wealth of the world’s poorest 3.8 billion people.
“According to Oxfam’s Public Good or Private Wealth report, the number of billionaires has doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, and their wealth has grown by 12 percent. Over the same period, the wealth of the world’s 3.8 billion poorest people declined by 11 percent.
“Released a day before the world’s richest and most powerful gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam’s report shows that the “growing gap between the rich and poor is undermining the fight against poverty, damaging our economies and fueling public anger across the globe.”
“While the richest people have seen an increase in their fortunes of $900 billion, or $2.5 billion a day, over the last year, the poorest 3.8 billion people, almost half of the world’s population, are living on less than $5.50 a day, the report found.
“Despite the growth of their fortunes, these people, as well corporations, are paying lower tax rates than they have in decades, according to Oxfam, which cites President Donald Trump’s tax plan as an example.
“The recent U.S. tax law is a master class on how to favor massive corporations and the richest citizens,” said Paul O’Brien, Oxfam America’s vice president for policy and campaigns.“
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Cry AOC! and let slip the dogs of war …
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“Released a day before the world’s richest and most powerful gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland…”
These people are the “richest and most powerful” only because we allow them to be! Their power ends when we say it does. Hence their love of AOC.
So, let’s end it.
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The Davos attendees walk with shiny, gold, diamond studded blinders on. They cannot see. So, there will be more yellow jacketed protesters and rioters. There will be more red shirted strikers. And there will be more Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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An out-spoken Democrat with a spine, AOC deserves our respect and support. The rich will do everything in their power to discredit her and undermine her mission. We need more representatives like her to help rebuild the middle class. A healthy middle class is the key to a healthy economy.
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AOC has my respect and support. The new females in the house, need to stick together and watch their backs.
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The top marginal tax rate was 90% under Eisenhower. A Republican. (But not like the current crop of Republicans.)
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he understood exactly what rule by an uber-rich oligarchy would look like
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I’m of the theory that the financial crisis of 2008 was manufactured by a few of the ALEC crowd and Hedge funders. Maybe I’m wrong, but people with great wealth can do incredible things with the stock market and the economy. AOC should know that she should be afraid for her life and well being. These billionaires are serious about keeping their wealth and they’re not afraid to spend money to do it and to “shut up” anyone who cares to expose the scheme.
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Lisa–I believe your theory to be correct. In fact, since ALEC has had almost 50 years (est. 1971, I believe), they’ve been perfecting all of their evil plans–including (or especially)–privatization of schools, because we all know “knowledge is power.”
That having been said, ALEC has been striving to take over every humane aspect of American life & democracy–healthcare, affordable housing, living wages.
It’s of the utmost importance that all of us educate everyone we know about the evil existence of ALEC & to stay aware of who & what (corporations are NOT people!) are connected to ALEC–esp. any & all politicians/legislators bought by them.
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Araqnging for AOC to have a terrible “accident” would not be out of character for conservatives.
Wellstone
John F. Kennedy, Jr. (I believe he had an “accident” because he was going to enter politics and the powers that be couldn’t let that happen).
God only know how many more people have been eliminated to enable the conservs/rethugs to come to power.
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“it would take away the incentive to work” Define work. Work like clean a bathroom or make food? This word must have a completely different meaning to the super rich. Like used in a sentence, I’m investing instead of buying a yacht, I’m hard at work.
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AOC is a light in the dark and won’t be silenced!
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AOC is the best!!! She is smart, determined and has not been cowed into silence by all her detractors and nay sayers, whether from the right, center or some corporate Democrats. They mercilessly mock everything about her, from her clothes to her positions. There’s nothing revolutionary about a top marginal tax rate of 70% (it was 90%+ during the1940s through the early 1960s; it was in the 70% range from the mid 1960s through the early 1980s). There’s nothing revolutionary about universal health care unless you are a right winger or centrist. The US is the only developed country without universal health care. What other politicians are taking like this? Precious few: Bernie, Elizabeth Warren and a handful of others.
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They say she’s a socialist. Wrong, she’s a democratic socialist as is Bernie. Martin Luther King and Helen Keller were also democratic socialists and the author of the Pledge of Allegiance, Francis Bellamy, was a Christian socialist. Ha, ha, ha, all these right wing xenophobes and chest thumping flag waving super patriots are reciting a Christian socialist pledge.
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Check out this report from the non-partisan tax foundation. see
https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data-2016-update/
The top 1% are already paying 39.5% of all federal taxes. The bottom 50% paid 2.7% .
The federal tax system is already extremely progressive.
Fortunately, the President does not set tax rates. Only the House of Representatives can draft a tax bill. (the senate can amend it,like any other bill).
Any attempt to bring in confiscatory tax rates like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez suggests, will be dead on arrival.
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Sorry, Charles, the top 1% are not paying enough.
Why are you worried about raising taxes on incomes that exceed $10 million a year?
Is it too hard to make ends meet when $10 Million is your take home pay?
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Federal tax is only a part of the unseemly story. The bottom 50% pay 7% in payroll taxes (extremely regressive) that is then borrowed by the feds to pay bills. The feds borrow from the folks who pay the 39% in federal taxes, and earn interest on what they lend. So the interest they “earn” actually reduces their tax burden. And since the 39% is spent on goods and services owned by the richest 1%, the folks who pay this large share of federal taxes are really getting much of their money back in profits from federal spending.
Also, the guys who “earns” over 10 million dollars a year “earns” 200 times more than the average family in the US, so the 39% in federal taxes they pay is but 14 times what the bottom 50% pay, which is a damn good investment if you ask me. 39% is a bargain for what they get! This 39% investment earns them a whopping 1,400% ROI. (ROI is the Davos acronym for “wow, ain’t it great to be king?!).
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I am not worried about the possibility of raising taxes on individuals who earn these large salaries. If the feds decide to hike their taxes, they will just hire more accountants, and move their money into tax shelters, and offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands.
I am somewhat bothered by this “war on wealth”. Our nation needs wealth creators. No poor person ever offered me a job.
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They won’t hire more people. They will buy bigger yachts and they already offshore their vast wealth.
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The United States NEEDS more jobs that pay a livable wage and not more wealth creation. It has been proven since President Teflon Ray-Gun in the 1980s, that trickle down is only a trickle. Most of the wealth stays locked in with the wealthy.
To create jobs, we must pay workers at least a livable income and have a a healthy consumer middle class. The more those consumers spend on food, clothing, eating out, shopping, buying cars, taking vacations, the more jobs are created.
There are only 540 billionaires in the United States.
There are 11-million millionaires in the US.
That leaves the rest of us: 314.16-million Americans and the more the adults earn, the more they have to spend and that generates jobs. Not someone like Jeff Bezos with more than $130-billion that is mostly the value of his Amazon stock that he is about to split with his wife when the divorce is final.
“Here’s how much Jeff Bezos would be worth if he never sold any stock
“But if there’s been one constant for Amazon over the years, it’s CEO Jeff Bezos. As of Feb. 26, Bezos’ net worth had skyrocketed to more than $124 billion, according to Forbes, making him the richest person on the planet. Despite taking home a rather pedestrian annual salary — less than $1.7 million, including an $81,840 salary in 2016 — it’s Bezos’ common stock in Amazon that continues to pay off.”
Bezos can’t spend his stock. It just sits there doing nothing but growing or shrinking in value.
He can only spend his annual salary and he pays himself a lot less than most big corporate CEOs earn. At less than $2 million a year, Bezos will never have to pay the 70% tax for those that earn more than 10-million a year. Instead, he’ll pay 35% and still have $1.105 million left over to spend to support his lifestyle. That’s more than a million more than I earn before I pay my annual tax bill.
You have actually provided proof that jobs are created by the working class and not the wealthy few at the top of the pyramid when you mentioned in previous comments how much traffic and business/shopping had dropped in the DC area with the shut down of the federal government.
The 314.6 million people that are not millionaires or billionaires spend more money that support jobs than all the billionaires and millionaire combined.
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If you say that the top 1% are not paying enough in federal taxes, then how much should these people be paying? Forget about rates, just how much of the federal tax is enough?
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The first $10 million of income is taxes at 35%.
Income above $10 million should be taxed at a minimum of 70%. During the Eisenhower administration, the marginal tax rate was 90%. That prevented criminal inequality and was spent to build the middle class. Sounds right to me
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@ Steve Cohen
Don’t forget the regressive personal property taxes that the working class have to pay on their falling apart cars necessary to get to their three jobs. Or the sky high registration fees at red state DMVs.
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C. said: “I am somewhat bothered by this “war on wealth”. Our nation needs wealth creators. No poor person ever offered me a job.”
That’s standard issue libertarian propaganda, the sort of stuff that regularly flows from Fox News, Limbaugh and Hannity. War on wealth? Not. There’s a war on poverty and poor people, poverty has been almost criminalized and in fact homeless people (many of them children) are treated as criminals. AOC’s tax proposal would still leave rich people very rich, fabulously rich. Chuck shows a hatred and disdain for poor people, he sneers at them with that remark about poor people never offering him a job.
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“confiscatory tax rates”? Perhaps ‘soul crushing’ rate of 70%? 30% of a 100 million is still 30 million, the horror.
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JESUS H. CHRIST, there is nothing “non-partisan” about the Tax Foundation. It’s a collection of right-wing, Cato Institute alumni, so-called libertarian hacks. Just because they call themselves non-partisan doesn’t mean they are. They come from the point-of-view that all taxes are bad. They have no interest in figuring out how public services should be paid for. There are NO taxes they see as legitimate. Just shut up, Chuckie. We’re tired of this s–t.
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The phrase “confiscatory tax rates” can be applied to any income level. It is meaningless. It means rich people “deserve” everything they get and ignores how they game the tax system by using and abusing governmental tax codes. Read a book on basic economics before spewing this tripe.
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that’s exactly right. Very wealthy people hire accountants and lawyers to help them minimize their taxes. Trump boasted during the campaign that he paid as little in taxes as possible, and said that tax avoidance was “smart.” Some surmise that he pays no taxes at all. We will never know unless his tax returns are released.
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The People’s Republic of Korea call themselves a people’s republic. Using Chuckie’s logic, they are. With all due credit to JD Salinger, JESUS H. CHRIST! I will try to meditate now to lower my blood pressure.
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The profit that the corporations earned frothier grand theft of our GNP, was plowed back into the salaries and the stock of their companies. Workers never saw a penny!
AOC is right…but it aint’ gonna happen, and she will be marginalized as aunt by the time the elections roll around. She will be toxic to any candidate who wants the WH…
Her voice needs to stay in Congress, and she can achieve great things at the grassroots level.
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Imagine all the fleets of yachts, private jets, and multiple mansions and estates on every continent that might have to be sold off.
The horror of it.
How can anyone live with out a couple of mansions on vast estates and only one or two yachts and one private jet instead of a dozen. Geeze, they might have to downgrade to 80-foot yachts instead of owning 200 footers that are a match for some cruise ships.
Instead of owning a twenty thousand square foot $250-million dollar penthouse overlooking Central Park in NYC, they’d be forced to downgrade to a 5,000 square foot penthouse overlooking Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx.
Gasp, they might have to fire some of their private security guards that protect them from working class citizens that are so angry at not earning enough to survive even working two or three jobs at poverty wages without any benefits, they’d be willing to die in an attempted assassination.
How many bodyguards does Betsy DeVos have protecting her 24/7?
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We pay for Betsy’s guards
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I’d love for my tax money to pay for her pyramid scheming husband’s guards. In Leavenworth.
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