>> Rich dudes are not
having an easy time digesting
Senator Elizabeth Warren's proposal
to implement a wealth tax.
In fact, they're crying about it.
Which means it's time for another
edition of when rich men cry.
[MUSIC].
>> I care.
[MUSIC].
>> Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax
would not impact
the vast majority of Americans.
It would only impact the Uber rich.
In fact the Uber rich people who
have a net worth of $50 million and
above that, would get taxed 2%.
And when it comes to people who
are worth $1 billion or more,
they would be taxed at 3%.
Now it's not an unreasonable tax
especially when you consider the
fact that many of these people have
skirted paying their fair share of
taxes for quite some time now.
And that has contributed to
the ever growing inequality in this
country.
And so when Elizabeth Warren first
proposed this back during the 2020
Democratic primaries,
our good friend Leon Cooperman
cried on CNBC,
as you saw in that intro video.
And now that she's proposing it
again, although it's a much more
updated version giving the economic
situation we find ourselves in
during this pandemic.
The temper tantrum just continues.
Beginning with Grover Norquist,
who's worried about the IRS
enforcement component of it.
Because he just thinks this
is a way of punishing good
hard working millionaires and
billionaires in this country.
Take a look.
>> Grover I know you hate all
taxes.
But is there a way to increase tax
revenue and
to more fairly tax the wealthy?
Recognizing that I know that you
don't like the wealth tax unto
itself.
>> If you want to reduce the
capital gains tax every time we've
reduced the capital gains tax rate.
Higher income people have paid
more in taxes and
you've had more growth, and they've
been more jobs for everybody.
So if you're into hate and envy,
go ahead and do the Warren tax.
There's a lot of
selective discussion about where
the Warren tax succeeded.
15 countries have put in
a wealth tax.
11 got rid of them.
Because they discovered how
dysfunctional it was.
One of the things that people
should check on is, in this
legislation that weren't as before.
She wants $100 million dollars
more in enforcement.
>> He's upset about that because
he's worried that wealthy people,
meaning people who have a net worth
of above $50 million are going to
have to deal with the same audits.
The people getting paid starvation
wages have been dealing with as
the IRS has focused most of their
attention on auditing the poor,
as opposed to the wealthy.
And the reason why that's the case
Francesca is of course throughout
the years, you have
Republican administrations,
Republican lawmakers,
cutting off resources to the IRS,
which they would desperately need
in order to audit the complicated
tax filings of this country's
millionaires and billionaires.
I would venture to say,
some of those people probably have
committed tax fraud in order to
prevent paying taxes.
But they don't focus on that.
The IRS doesn't have the money
to do it.
So, Senator Warren's proposal
includes funding for the IRS.
In order to be able to enforce not
just the wealth tax but
enforce the current tax laws that
we have now.
>> I love how Grover Norquist is
imagining.
Michael Moore's
idea of creating cops.
But for white collar criminals and
chasing people down in the streets.
Once again don't threaten us with
a good time because we on the left.
We want to see
that kind of entertainment.
But. [LAUGH].
No. It's to actually get you to
make good because we know you're
litigious and lawyered up.
And you don't like.
The billionaires aren't working
with Turbo Tax.
They've got a whole other army of
accountants.
[LAUGH]. Who are helping them
skirt laws and fudge the numbers.
And so that's what it is.
Sadly, do you need more money to
enforce tax code on the rich
because they're the biggest
violators of the tax code.
So that's why.
My man's got no ideas for
how to make the tax code more fair.
The question was, is there a way we
can tax the wealthy
that you would approve of?
And he was like, No, you get rid of
capital gains taxes because.
>> Yeah >> We're we're job
creators.
God, buddy.
How's that worked out for
the country?
>> Grover Norquist,
is the worst when it comes to
this particular issue.
He has dedicated his entire life,
his entire career,
to doing away with taxes.
And that has led to a lot of the
inequality we see in the country,
lack of opportunity for
people just completely gunning
the social safety net.
And the thing that I would point to
is, take a look at what the current
capital gains taxes are.
It's not the same as income taxes.
I mean these people are not
paying a lot in capital gains tax,
about 15%.
And so for him to say,
his solution is to do away
with the capital gains tax which is
too low to begin with.
It's too low.
lt's should be increased.
Capital gains it's people investing
their money usually millionaires
and billionaires investing
their money in the stock market.
Seeing a return in that investment,
and then getting taxed much less
on that income.
15% in most cases.
It's ridiculous that
he thinks that that's too high.
But also I love that he's crying
about the possibility of having
to deal with the IRS doing its job
when it comes to the wealthy and
the privilege.
And then he mentions hate and
envy and that's really what
I want to focus on.
[LAUGH].
>> I wouldn't say that it's envy.
I wouldn't even say that it's hate.
But is there anger toward the
wealthiest people in this country?
Yes.
And I think that that
anger is justified.
>> Yeah. >> Because those
individuals would not be as wealthy
as they are.
Had it not been for their workers,
had it not been for
the labor that over produces and
then gets underpaid.
Right?
They're the ones who have
decided to hoard all the wealth,
who have decided to pay themselves
back by buying shares of their own
stock in order to artificially
inflate the value.
I mean, these are people who have
purposely intentionally
exploited labor in this country.
And their workers are demanding
a fair wage while their workers
are demanding decent working
conditions while their workers just
want to provide for themselves and
their families and
live a life of decency.
You have clowns like
Grover Norquist pretending as if
the real victims in this country
are the people who have been
completely ignored by the IRS.
Or the people who have
been skirting paying taxes in this
country.
The people who have done
anything and
everything to skirt regulations.
To ensure that our food is safe
to eat.
That's a story we'll get to
later in the show.
And to make them out to be
the victims, I think,
is just beyond pathetic.
>> You're just jealous of their
private jets, Ana.
That's all I'm hearing.
I'm hearing, you're just mad at us.
Because you can't be us.
Or hate us because you can't be us.
Whatever the line is.
I think it's also let's whatever.
What was the money, the breakdown,
for what 2 or 3% would be?
You've got to lay off some of your
staff in St. Barts.
Such a drag.
Of your second home.
That's your fourth vacation home.
This is what we're actually talking
about.
It's nothing.
It's a little piece of dandruff on
Bill Gates's million dollar suit.
This is not important to them.
It's something they can let go of.
But once again,
we talked about in the segment,
rich people can't imagine.
They're so afraid.
It is the absurdity I think of when
people misunderstand racial justice
to be like, you're going to come
for my freedoms like no, no.
That's not what equality is.
How can you be so afraid of just
a little bit more fairness?
Not a lot just a little bit.
And really comes down to
these people can't imagine
ever living on minimum wage.
These are Grover Norquist would
commit.
He would kill himself before he
would have to live on minimum wage.
He would kill, and meanwhile,
poor people in this country working
people are also the most generous.
Like anyone who's been in a working
class family.
Anyone who knows,
anyone who's seen the amount of
solidarity in times of need.
Anyone who's been to other
countries also ends like that.
That's where the actual
solidarity comes from.
Not from the ultra wealthy.
But these guys can't even imagine
living like that.
>> And just to really highlight how
this inequality works, as you all
know, taxes were already low for
corporations and
the rich in this country.
But thanks to Donald Trump's 2017
tax cuts.
He actually lowered taxes for
the rich in this country further.
And so the year following 2017,
data indicated that some of
the most well known and successful
corporations paid absolutely
nothing in federal taxes.
So for instance, Netflix and Amazon
paid no federal taxes in 2018.
Other companies on that list
include Chevron, Delta Airlines,
Eli Lilly, General Motors,
Goodyear Tire and Rubber,
Halliburton, IBM, JetBlue,
Principal Financial, Sales Force,
US Steel and Whirlpool.
These are all companies that isn't
to 2018.
This is pre pandemic.
They're doing all right.
They're doing real well.
And there's no reason why they
shouldn't be paying anything in
federal taxes.
But the tax law was written as
such.
And did they create more jobs?
No. They did corporate
stock buybacks.
Which we'll get to in
just a second.
Corporate tax collections in 2018
declined 31% from the previous
year.
This is the first year on record
that corporate tax collections have
fallen so precipitously during
a period of economic expansion.
That's what's going on.
Okay. But they're the victims guys.
Okay. Grover Norquist wants you to
believe that they're the victim.
Can you please stop hating and
envying us?
That's Grover Norquist.
He also thinks that they should be
allowed to do corporate
stock buybacks.
Let's go to the next video.
>> It does help the stock rise.
Why is that so bad for
shareholders?
For pension plans that
own the stock.
For state retirement plans
that own the stock.
You reduce the float,
earnings per share goes up,
the stocks go up,
everybody's doing better.
Income inequality narrows.
>> No, no, come on! >> We're all
winning Senator, we're all winning.
Come on! What do you mean, come on?
>> This is nothing but
paper manipulation.
Everybody's doing better.
Listen to yourself.
Nothing about the business changed.
They're still turning out the same
number of widgets at
the same cost and
selling it to the same customers.
Nothing changed.
But they got a little fluff and
buff in their stock.
And how did they do that?
By taking their excess cash and
saying, we can't figure out
anything to do with.
[CROSSTALK].
>> Our investors.
>> You're going to put
the government in the.
>> There going to investment
decision that the only investment
in America that makes.
[CROSSTALK].
>> You're going to put
the government in the business of
managing the balance sheets for
these companies that are trying to
do what they think is right for
their capital structure.
[LAUGH].
>> If you put it like
that then, yes.
Yes, that's what the government
should absolutely do.
Because whenever it comes to their
so called capital structure,
of course, they're more interested
in paying themselves than paying
their workers.
And doing
the quote unquote the right thing.
As Joe Kernen mentioned in there.
I apologize, I mix up my white male
wealth hoarders in this country.
That was not Grover Norquist,
that was Joe Kernan from
CNBC's Squawk Box.
And he lied in that segment about
how absolutely devastating stock
buybacks really are.
He tried to make it seem like it's
a great thing, Francesca.
But just a few excerpts from
a piece written in
the Harvard Business Review about
how disastrous corporate stock
buybacks are for the economy.
And let me just note that there was
$1.1 trillion spent on corporate
stock buybacks in 2018.
Stock buybacks made as open market
repurchases, make no contribution
to the productive capabilities of
the firm.
Indeed these distributions to
shareholders which generally come
on top of dividends disrupt
the economic orations,
they disrupt the growth dynamic,
that links the productivity and
pay of the labor force.
The results are increased income
inequality, employment instability,
and anaemic productivity.
You want to know why,
because they take the money from
their tax savings and they just try
to do all sorts of little tricks
with the stock market.
So they can make more money for
themselves.
They don't create new jobs.
They don't reinvest in their
companies.
They don't invest in their own
workers.
They don't do any of that.
They just try to find ways to take
advantage of a system that's rigged
against workers to make themselves
wealthier.
And then you have a clown on CNBC
telling you that it's a great
thing, that you should just shut up
and take it.
>> I mean, what's crazy is that
Elizabeth Warren when consistently
offered the ability to say whether
she's a democratic socialist.
Socialist ideas, no, I don't.
I'm a capitalist and
you're like, okay.
And once again a lot of people who
are calling for
anything from breaking up big tech
to not allowing these stock
buybacks are like no, no.
I'm a through and
through capitalists.
I just believe that the system
needs to have a little wee bit of
regulation.
I believe Warren is all about
breaking up Amazon.
Because it creates more
capitalist competition.
So for all the free market heads
out there who somehow are on
the side of governor Norquist here
and others.
Remember this is not what
the free market was intended to do.
This is not the invisible
hand of the market.
This is not working out.
This is gaming a system that
has been wide open for fraud and
allowing your accountants and
your stockbrokers to make you even
more money that you didn't earn.
That's all it is.
So again, it's not radical.
But we have to keep on saying it
over and over and over again.
That none of this is actually
socialist, even if you
are a democratic socialist.