Dear Friend,
Senator Elizabeth Warren got it right in her tweet about Elon Musk this
week:
“Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually
pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.”^1
Musk may be Time’s Person of the Year, but he is also the United States’
biggest mooch, paying nearly no federal income taxes in 2018. Now his net
worth has ballooned to nearly $300 billion.^2 And the spotlight on him and
his ridiculous hoard of money is helping to fuel public support for a tax
on billionaires—which is where Demand Progress comes in.
[ [link removed] ]Will you chip in $10 to Demand Progress and help pressure
Congress to pass a wealth tax?
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Musk shot back at Sen. Warren on Twitter, calling her names and mocking
her, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is worth a staggering ten
times more than he was just 18 months ago, when the pandemic began.^3
And it’s not just Elon Musk profiting off us while working families
struggle with exploding inflation and skyrocketing food and childcare
costs. Jeff Bezos saw his worth jump 66%. Mark Zuckerberg’s grew 136%.
Overall, billionaires got an average of 62% richer—gaining $1.8
trillion—while barely paying taxes at all.^4
The ultra wealthy are able to accumulate that money because of the U.S.’s
infrastructure, workforce, and business-friendly legislation—but they
aren’t paying the taxes you and I do to keep the country going.
A wealth tax won’t take any of those billionaires out of the 1%, but it
can help support programs that will change the lives of millions of
people. The current Build Back Better bill has paid family leave,
childcare subsidies, universal pre-K, Medicare expansion, and climate
action—and making billionaires pay their fair share should be part of the
deal.^5 We must ensure that a wealth tax is included in the Senate’s bill.
It’s time to stop letting billionaires avoid paying higher taxes. Demand
Progress has mobilized people to send more than 240,000 messages to
Congress in support of wealth taxes in 2021, and we’re using that power to
make sure that Congress hears us in 2022.
[ [link removed] ]Will you donate $10 to Demand Progress help pass a wealth
tax?
Thanks for standing with us.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
PS: Your contributions are what keep us nimble and prepared to take on
important fights like these as they happen. [ [link removed] ]Will you become a monthly
donor to keep our work going?
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Sources:
1. CNN, "Elon Musk calls Elizabeth Warren 'Senator Karen' in fight over
taxes," [ [link removed] ]December 15, 2021
2. ProPublica, "The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records
Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax," [ [link removed] ]June 8, 2021
3. Forbes, "#2 Elon Musk," [ [link removed] ]December 16, 2021
4. Institute for Policy Studies, "U.S. Billionaires Got 62 percent Richer
During Pandemic. They’re Now Up $1.8 Trillion." [ [link removed] ]August 24, 2021
5. Vox, "The state of the shrinking Build Back Better Act," [ [link removed] ]December
13, 2021
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