Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to
hear what notorious billionaire
crybaby, Leon Cooperman has to say
about her proposed wealth tax.
Now, Leon Cooperman has called
the wealth tax foolish, which of
course means it's time for another
edition of When Rich Men Cry.
[MUSIC]
>> I care. [MUSIC]
That's it.
[MUSIC]
>> And I love this episode because
Warren has invited Leon Cooperman
to appear at an April 27th hearing
on creating a fairer tax system.
So she's like, okay, all right.
You think I'm foolish, you want
to say all these nasty things
about me during CNBC interviews,
why don't you come and testify and
tell us why it is that my proposed
wealth tax is such a bad idea.
Now for those of you who might have
missed that proposal, she had first
pitched it when she was running in
the Democratic primary,
but she's reintroducing it.
And the ultra millionaire tax which
Warren reintroduced last month,
would seek to raise at least $3
trillion over 10 years by imposing
a 2% annual levy on the net worth
of households above $50 million.
Billionaires would face a 3% tax.
So we're not talking about
increasing taxes on people like us.
We're talking about increasing
taxes on people who have been able
to dodge paying taxes through all
sorts of loopholes and
tax giveaways by our Federal
government.
Now, Warren wrote a letter to
Leon Cooperman arguing, as we move
expeditiously toward consideration
of changes to our rigged tax code,
so that the wealthy pay their fair
share, I believe you should be
afforded the chance to present your
perspective directly to Congress.
Now she used the phrase fair share.
And Leon Cooperman no like that.
In fact, he said that
as much during a CNBC interview,
let's watch.
>> When he starts talking about
raising taxes on capital gains,
raising tax and
ordinary income in a recent speech,
he's talked about fair share.
I hate that expression
with a passion.
What does fair share mean?
I've seen your probe in
numerous times.
Basically, I'm willing to work six
months a year for the government
and six months myself, which means
a marginal tax rate of 50%.
You live in California,
Cannecticut, New Jersey, New York,
you're ready well past that.
And this fair share is a concept.
It's just a way of attacking
wealthy people.
And I think it's inappropriate,
we all got to work together and
pull together.
>> We all got to work together and
pull together.
Yeah, I'm worth $2.5 billion, but
I'm going to complain about paying
too much in taxes anyway,
even though I get all
these loopholes and tax credits and
things I don't actually deserve.
[LAUGH] >> Okay.
All right.
Warren loves to troll and by the
way, which I'll get to in a second.
But Francesca, I wanted to give you
a chance to jump in,
I can't be having all the fun.
>> No, that was first of all,
amazing and I love that impression.
And I also feel like the next time
CNBC interviews him,
he's just going to be like,
literally on the Cayman Islands
just burying his gold.
I always say, your fair share,
I don't even get it okay,
here we got like he.
That's what he's doing.
Like the guy he paid a fine for
insider trading.
He knows,
like only someone who is guilty and
who knows they don't deserve that
money is that fragile about it?
We've talked about this time and
again.
And obviously, look, I wish Biden
would jump on to Elizabeth Warren's
tax plan and
taxing the ultra wealthy.
That would be huge.
And I think there's a lot of
analysis right now that is like
Biden can only skirt so long and
go so long without actually
tackling corporate greed and
greed of the ultra wealthy.
He's trying to sort of say that
nothing will change.
Everything is okay.
We could totally pay for
all this infrastructure.
But no, you need the money.
And the last time I was on this
show, Anna, we talked all about how
beefing up the IRS would mean that
actually, would mean getting
millionaires and billionaires
to pay taxes they already owe.
Something like $10
trillion dollars, right,
like huge amounts of money.
So we don't even know what Leon
Cooperman already should be paying.
We don't know everything we should
be getting from him, but
he's mad anyway.
[INAUDIBLE] >> Yeah, there was this
new analysis out that showed that
because of the IRS being
underfunded and that usually leads
to them focusing most of their
energy on easy audits, on people
who are typically not wealthy.
Wealthy people are able to skirt
about $1 trillion in taxes a year.
So yeah,
it is a massive amount of money.
And we're talking about
taxes that they should be paying,
even under our broken tax code that
gives them all sorts of goodies and
favors, okay.
But after he did that interview,
Warren's been trolling him, which
I will admit, I've been enjoying it
because she's right on this issue.
There should be a wealth tax.
And you're absolutely right
about Biden.
I mean, Biden wasn't even willing
to increase the corporate tax rate
to what it was prior to Trump
cutting it from 35% to 21%.
Biden has proposed a 28% corporate
tax rate and
now it looks like he's not even
really going to fight for that.
The end result is likely going to
be a 25% corporate tax rate.
But in regard to Warren's trolling,
so after he did some of these
interviews with CNBC,
basically calling Warren's tax plan
foolish and all that.
She put out a mug as part of
her campaign merchandise that
said billionaire tears, so you'll
be drinking billionaire tears.
He didn't like that.
During an interview
with CNN Business, Cooperman called
Warren, then a Democratic
presidential candidate,
a superficial nasty hater.
Like you're a grown man.
I think it's weird when grown men
use the word hater, but okay.
And urge the public not to fall for
this political charlatan.
Nonetheless, Warren also included
in her letter to him,
the opportunity will allow you to
fully air your views not merely
in front of the financial news
audience where you often express
them, but before the entirety
of the American people.
And I do want to give you another
taste of how Warren loves to troll
this guy because it's just,
it's grade A, it's a lot of fun.
Let's go to our next video.
>> Maybe you've heard, there's some
billionaires who don't like this.
[LAUGH] >> Yes,
they've been interviewed on TV,
I've noticed lately.
[LAUGH] >> So sad, so sad that they
might have to pay 2 cents out of
their bazillion dollars.
So here's the thing, and they say,
I worked hard.
>> I care.
That's it.
>> Imagine being worth 2.5 billion,
not million,
$2.5 billion, and just the proposal
of a long shot wealth tax makes you
lose it on national television.
I can't get enough.
It's amazing.
>> Those tears are so like,
they're like the, well,
gotta cut my second family lose.
I don't know how Clarice is
going to deal with all these.
I don't know why I said Clarice,
I feel like that's a second
family wife name.
Got to say goodbye to, or
his boat Clarissa, whichever.
There's a Clarissa
in there's somewhere.
The point is, is that Yeah,
he can definitely afford it and
I do, look, I disagree with
Elizabeth Warren on a lot of things
but watching her do like a hot five
minute set about like billionaires.
I'll go for like,
I'll get tickets to that show.
I'll watch her just sort of
troll them.
And it's true though,
he should sit in a hearing.
If he has something legitimate to
say and add,
which apparently according to CNBC,
he does because he's got money.
Never really understood that.
Hedge fund had to pay a fee for
insider trading.
Okay, so I'm going to
put them on TV.
Okay, cool.
But like then put them in front of
Congress to have him
suggest something else.
My guess is, he doesn't want that
because he doesn't want any more
scrutiny into his own
finances than there's already been.
>> You know,
I would have thought the same, but
he is genuinely considering it and
I hope he does testify.
Look, whatever you think about
Elizabeth Warren,
put it off to the side.
I agree with you, Francesca,
there are certainly things that I
disagree with her on.
When she backed away from Medicare
for all during
the Democratic primaries,
I was not pleased by that.
But her moment to shine is really
during these hearings, where she
gets to ask difficult questions to
people in the financial sector.
Just this past weekend,
I rewatched how she grilled
Timothy Geithner following the 2008
economic collapse.
And I mean,
she just like sliced and
diced the guy,
who was like tripping up.
It was it was a sight to see,
I highly recommend you guys check
out that video.
But Cooperman, a longtime hedge
fund executive whose net worth
Forbes pegs at 2.5 billion told
CNBC, he's a bit suspicious about
the invitation, but is nonetheless
considering testifying anyway.
Please testify.
Please, please do it.
>> Will he cry and do you think
you'll save some tears?
Just for
the mic bring extra hankies.
Give a loud like, [LAUGH]
>> Listen as a man, as a man who's
good at failing up word, I'm very
interested to see him flailing
upward, which is likely going to
happen during that that testimony.
It's going to be wonderful.
So stay tuned for that.