Yeah, I mean, I really don’t know what to tell people on this one. This isn’t a shock. This isn’t some upset you couldn’t see coming. This is not like the iceberg that struck the Titanic, which was never seen. This event was provisioned. It’s been a given ever since Democrats decided to crush us with tax policy and hate the job-creating and investing class. Joe Biden was going to raise taxes—by a lot. It was no secret. It was out there in the open—for months. Also, again, he’s a Democrat; these people love jacking up the taxes. The last time a Democratic president actually cut anything tax-related in recent memory was Bill Clinton—who cut capital gains taxes. Something that no Democrat can even mention, even behind closed doors, unless they want Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her squad gunning for them.
So, for the rich folks who backed Biden and are now upset about the recent proposal President Depends mentioned this week that tanked the markets, all I can say is play stupid games, win stupid prizes (via Bloomberg):
Charles Myers was sitting in a first-class seat on a flight from New York to Dallas when his phone started blowing up Thursday. News had just broken that the wealthiest Americans could soon face a tax rate as high as 43.4% on gains from their investments.
The chairman of Signum Global Advisors wasn’t thrilled.
“Raising capital gains taxes hurts the capital markets,” he said in a text message. “Better to raise the personal top marginal rate and estate tax. Leave capital gains and dividends alone.”
Myers has raised funds for Joe Biden, and wasn’t shocked by the White House’s plan because it was part of the president’s campaign. But the donor doesn’t think that 43.4% rate will make it into final legislation.
As the plane descended, he added: “Over-taxing success is un-American.”
[…]
Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper isn’t persuaded. He said raising federal rates to as high as 43.4% would sound the death knell for Silicon Valley and American job creation.
A similar sentiment was echoed by Michael Sonnenfeldt, founder and chairman of Tiger 21, a network of wealthy entrepreneurs, investors and executives with an average of $100 million in assets.
“When you raise taxes dramatically you create disincentives so that people hang on to assets longer than they might have to avoid a high capital gains tax,” he said. “That capital might have been better deployed in the next business that will create jobs.”
[…]
Veteran venture capitalist Alan Patricof, who has also raised funds for Biden, said the latest plan would be nothing short of a “philosophical reversal” of the landscape that has prevailed for decades.
It would “turn on its head the concept of incentivizing individuals to invest in companies using their capital with a preferential tax rate,” he said. But Patricof is trying not to get too worked up about it, for the time being. “Let’s see what the actual proposal looks like before making a judgment.”
U.S. stocks fell by the most in five weeks on news of Biden’s proposal…
I mean, no kidding, fellas. Tax hikes kill job creation and growth—how revolutionary. At the same time, we have to put things into perspective. The people doing the bellyaching in this piece are going to be just fine. We have a "complaining with two loaves of bread under your arms" situation. That doesn’t mean they’re not wrong, but I doubt their lifestyles will plummet to the point where they’re living out of cardboard boxes like Randolph and Mortimer Duke from "Trading Places."
In the end, we all knew Biden’s economic agenda was going to be a retread of Obama’s regarding anemic growth. It’s a bit worse now with the Green New Deal and other left-wing initiatives being tossed around by the party’s most progressive and radical fringes. And we all know Joe can’t handle the pressure from these people. Look how easily he caved on caps for refugees; he’ll fold even quicker on taxes.
H/T Logan Hall
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*chef kiss* pic.twitter.com/zTWroKeOeQ
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) April 23, 2021
