Billionaire Investor Who Compared Taxing The Rich To Nazi Invasions Will Hold Fundraiser For Romney
Using popular anti-rich sentiment to justify taking from those rich is not a practical substitute for conservative economic policies. Nor is it a substitute for massive reductions in welfare and entitlement programs or constant increases in government spending in general.
The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money - Margaret Thatcher
Last summer, mega-investor and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman — who has a net worth of about $4.7 billion, according to Forbes — said Democratic efforts to close a pernicious tax provision known as the carried interest loophole was akin to Nazi invasions during World War II. "It's a war," Schwarzman said. "It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939."
This particular loophole lets private equity executives and hedge fund managers, who are some of the wealthiest people on the planet, pay exceedingly low tax rates. As billionaire investor Warren Buffet explained, "Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as 'carried interest,' thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate."
And it seems that Schwarzman has found his man in the 2012 election: the former private equity executive Mitt Romney:
Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the world's largest private-equity firm, will host a fundraiser for Mitt Romney at his Park Avenue apartment next month, a sign that Romney is closing the sale with Wall Street's wealthiest donors.
The event marks Schwarzman's inaugural step to help Romney secure the Republican presidential nomination, according to a person familiar with Schwarzman's plans who spoke on condition of anonymity. He will follow up with efforts to persuade colleagues in the financial industry to get behind Romney's presidential bid, the person said.
Schwarzman, for the record, is so wealthy that his personal chef "often spends $3,000 for a weekend of food for Mr. Schwarzman and his wife, including stone crabs that cost $400, or $40 per claw." Yet he has vociferously fought against equalizing the tax treatment of investors like himself and the working Americans whose income is taxed at normal income tax rates.
Romney, of course, has already come out against the "Buffett rule," the Obama administration's proposal to ensure that millionaires and billionaires can't pay lower tax rates than middle-class families. Romney's net worth is about $250 million and he won't release his tax returns (despite having previously called on his opponents to do so). However, a Citizens for Tax Justice analysis estimated that Romney pays a tax rate of about 14 percent.
Even before grabbing Schwarzman's endorsement, Romney had been hauling in Wall Street cash. But does Romney agree with Schwarzman that asking billionaires to pay their fair share is akin to Hitler invading Poland?
Anyone who believes that even taxing the wealthy at twice the current rate will balance our economy is being willfully ignorant. The root of the problem is big business interests coupled with global central banks infiltrating and using government to promote their agendas over the will and needs of the populations.
This is part of the failure of the Occupy protests to address root issues, and to allow the movement to be hijacked by political groups on both sides as fodder in the failed Left-Right paradigm.
Government is the problem.
Representatives allowing global central banks and big business to infest through lobbying and political contributions, infringing on the US Constitution via unnecessary and invalid legislation, is the method.
The only real solution is to wipe our government and start over from our inception. We need to return to and hold fast the core ideals of our Constitution, wiping out most legislation, holding those core laws as untouchable. The chipping away at our Bill of Rights has allowed our liberty to become corrupted and in constant danger of being retired entirely.
No comments:
Post a Comment