Conor here: According to Bloomberg, Trump received at least $24.4 million from 13 members of the Billionaires Index and Harris received $12.8 million from 20 people. So maybe Kamala has welcomed billionaires?
I think it’s safer to assume that US politicians work for the plutocrats unless they prove otherwise. Has Kamala done anything to prove that she is not?
Has he committed to keeping FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan in place yet? The disgraced AOC recently attacked Green presidential candidate Jill Stein, and her supporters for not supporting Kamala while still openly campaigning for Khan, so there’s that:
Rep AOC starts town hall @linakhanFTC breaking down monopoly power in grocery stores, housing, health care. He presents him as a leader who has used wisdom and who works really hard to deal with the company’s strengths. He says he has never seen an FTC leader like him. 🔥💯 pic.twitter.com/zW2mwaGLLg
– Nidhi Hegde (@nhegde) September 13, 2024
By Sonali Kolhatkar, an award-winning multimedia journalist. He is the creator, host, and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a weekly television and radio program that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica. His latest book is Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights Books, 2023). He is a writing fellow for the Economy for All project at the Independent Media Institute and the racial justice and civil liberties editor for Yes! Magazine. She serves as co-director of the non-profit organization Afghan Women’s Mission and is the co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan. He also sits on the board of directors of the Justice Action Center, an immigrant rights organization. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
Most Americans believe that the United States economy is unfairly rigged to benefit the wealthy. A few weeks ago, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris proved this to be an accurate assessment. He first supported his administration’s plan to raise the tax rate on top earners including capital gains to nearly 45 percent. This is included in President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget proposal. But shortly after billionaire donors made it clear they preferred not to part with any of their wealth, he relented, announcing in September that he supported a very low capital gains tax rate of 33 percent.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has made accusations of the “illegal economy” his signature word, explained Harris’ pivot: “I think he’s trying to do things the right way and do what he thinks is right to win the election.”
Think how hard it was for climate justice activists to get Harris to stick to his original 2019 vision of anti-deception. In a recent interview with Donald Trump, days after scientists declared the summer of 2024 the hottest on record, he promised, “I’m not going to stop fraud” – apparently to win over undecided voters in Pennsylvania.
It has been even more difficult for anti-genocide activists to get Harris to commit to an arms embargo on Israel in the face of mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza.
Whether it’s the long-term fate of our species or the short-term survival of humanity, Harris—at least while campaigning for President—clearly won’t budge. But in charging billionaires? They say “hell, no,” and he asks, “How low?”
Capital gains taxes, which are taxes on the increased value of stocks sold, currently stand at 20 percent. But what about the amount of unsold stocks and other assets? Biden’s proposal is to tax billionaires on all their wealth, including “unrealized capital gains” at a rate of 25 percent. And on that matter, thankfully, Harris has backed Biden’s view—for now.
The group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) estimates that “American billionaires and billionaires (those with at least $100 million in wealth) collectively held at least $8.5 billion in ‘unrealized capital gains’ by 2022.” The ATF says, “While the majority of Americans live on their income from work—income that is taxed year in and year out—the wealthiest households live comfortably on large untaxed income.”
Predictably, ideologues have flocked to Harris, with one observer calling the 25 percent wealth tax rate, “really nothing short of historic.”
New York Times columnist Peter Coy had a little gauche, and in his September 6, 2024 column he began by calling unearned income “paper wealth,” and “profits only on paper.” He also revived the tired adage that higher taxes on the ultrarich would have a “potential negative impact on business,” and would “greatly discourage investors from investing in startups.”
But the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities debunks the myth that it’s not real money, explaining that “wealthy families can use it [unrealized gains] to finance their (often luxurious) lifestyles… They can do so by borrowing large sums of their unrealized gains, without bringing in taxable income.” By borrowing money from this so-called paper wealth, they do not owe traditional tax because it is not recognized as traditional income.
For years, the wealthiest Americans have been holding on to money that should have been taken out of them in the form of taxes. What did these taxes pay for? Senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee explained during a hearing of the Budget committee that, “The super rich avoid about $2 trillion in taxes every 10 years.” That, he said, is “enough to keep Social Security intact until the end of this century.”
Politicians and economists advance the idea that taxing billions stifles innovation. The real link is that billionaire taxpayers fund government programs from which we collectively benefit. On the contrary, allowing them to remain rich, interferes with our well-being.
And, it might even help Harris win the election. Economic inequality is, not surprisingly, a top priority for voters. Data for Progress found that more than 70 percent of voters favor a tax increase on the wealthy. This includes most Republicans. Nearly two-thirds of those polled support Biden and Harris’ 25 percent tax rate on all the wealth held by billionaires—including unaffordable capital gains.
Harris faces the harsh reality that voters are tired of their hard-earned dollars not going far enough. Four years of inflation, of seeing the prices of food, rent, and other basic necessities rise faster than wages is enough to fuel the myth that someone else—especially Donald Trump—can do better.
Trump has embraced the billionaire agenda, promising to “make life better” for Musk and other wealthy individuals. He promised the oil officials that he will do their will to get campaign contributions. More billionaires support Trump than Harris. However, people who are financially insecure are more likely to support Trump than Harris.
So why doesn’t Harris pay all the higher taxes? Even when counting the electoral college, which forces presidential candidates to look to the center to win over a handful of undecided voters in “few swing districts,” Harris could win by relying on billions in higher taxes. Data for Progress found that expanding the federally funded Medicare program to cover dental, vision, and hearing, would help Harris significantly in swing counties. The second most important position supported by voters was to raise taxes on the wealthy. What better way to expand Medicare than to tax the rich to pay for it?
It will take a lot on Harris’ part to beat Trump’s false populism. Within such a context, it is not a good look that Harris gives himself anywhere pressure from billionaire donors—despite Senator Sanders’ claim that it’s an election strategy. Money is the best tool billionaires have to protect their wealth, so it should come as no surprise that they use it to protect themselves. It doesn’t mean Harris has to agree—not if he wants to win.