How to Rig an Economy
A Note to My Fellow Citizens
Dear Fellow Citizen,
Our tax code – like every nation’s tax code – specifies who pays how much in taxes and how various economic activities are rewarded or discouraged. It is one of the most foundational elements of our economy, and any effort to “rig” the economy will start with the tax code.
In 2017, on a strict party line vote, Republican politicians in Washington rewrote the entire federal tax code. I spent my career in finance, most recently at Blackrock, the largest investment firm in the world, and I have studied the new Republican tax code in depth. My conclusion is very simple:
The new Republican tax code deliberately rigs the economy in favor of the political donor class – the CEOs, corporations, and millionaires who fund campaign – and virtually guarantees that a tiny number of the richest people in the country will get significantly richer while working families and the middle class get screwed.
Among other things, the NEW REPUBLICAN TAX CODE allows:
- Millionaire investors to pay half the tax rate of people who bring home a paycheck from an actual job.
- Trust fund babies to inherit more than $22 million tax free while Americans who work for a living pay up to 37% in taxes on what they earn by actually working.
- Corporations to get a tax break for moving jobs outside of the US.
- “Fund managers” to pay half the tax rate of similar professions.
- Real estate developers and the children of real estate developers to be exempted from paying any taxes at all on properties worth tens of millions of dollars.
- Families who control massive stock portfolios to be exempted from paying any taxes at all on those assets, forever.
- Corporations who hid money overseas for years to be rewarded for their deceit.
With the passage of the new federal tax code, Republican politicians essentially transferred almost $2 trillion of the nation’s money to the corporations, CEOs, and millionaires who fund political campaigns. Those same politicians are now using the deficits they themselves created to demand huge cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Programs, and other essential benefits that have protected American citizens and American society as a whole for decades.
To add insult to injury, these politicians (along with the donors and corporations who fund their campaigns) insist on arguing publicly that this obscene new tax code is somehow going to create new jobs and explosive economic growth. Nonsense. Common sense understands (and academic studies have confirmed) that in history, tax cuts have never created new jobs. They won’t this time either. And because of the new tax code, most if not all future growth of the economy will be captured by a tiny group of people rather than shared across our citizenry.
Let me be clear, the new Republican tax code is not based on some credible economic theory or philosophy. It’s a payoff to the political donor class. Yes, it is that simple. They make it complicated on purpose to try to confuse you.
We created PMU to help explain – in words a human person can actually understand – how the tax code rigs the entire economy for the political donor class against everyone else. We hope that if you understand what was just done to you, you will join us in helping to make sure it gets undone.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We are happy to help.
Sincerely,
Morris Pearl
Chair, the Patriotic Millionaires
Retired Managing Director, Blackrock