Rich DEM Donor: 'Tax Rich People Like Me' or He's Done With the Party

[Kid Berwyn]

Here’s one person I wish were a DUer:

Link to tweet

Megarich Democratic Donor Says 'Tax Rich People Like Me' or He's Done With the Party

To "Democrats in Congress who know me and ask me for money continually," he says: "Pass the Biden infrastructure plan or never ask again. Ever."

ANDREA GERMANOS
Common Dreams, October 4, 2021

Amid ongoing negotiations over how wealth will be taxed to fund the proposed safety net and climate package known as the Build Back Better Act, one superrich Democratic donor suggested he's ready to stop writing checks to the party unless it passes the legislation with a $3.5 trillion price tag—not less—and with the proposed tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.

The proposed tax hikes, tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer wrote in an essay published Monday at The New Republic, offer common-sense benefits.

Instead of allowing the cash to be "hoarded" by "zillionaires" like himself, Hanauer argued that the tax increases could "create the foundation for broad-based prosperity," including through the extension of free public education, "meaningfully" tackling the climate emergency, and paid family and medical leave.

Recent evidence of the failure of so-called trickle-down economics is clear, Hanauer wrote, citing as one example Republicans' 2017 tax cuts, when "corporations chose to enrich their own executives and shareholders" rather than investing in their employees.

Without naming any specific lawmaker, Hanauer went on to accuse Democrats who are pushing for a lower price tag on the reconciliation bill or are resisting bigger taxes on the rich of "sabotaging an economy that will deliver broad-based prosperity for years to come."

Continues…

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/04/megarich-democratic-donor-says-tax-rich-people-me-or-hes-done-party

PS: Kid Berwyn is not solely responsible for the lack of content in his pockets. Even were I rich as a hedge fund manager, I would encourage Mr. Hanauer to continue in the Good Fight — with or without the money.

[maxsolomon]

1. Hanauer's not going anywhere. There's no other choice.

Does he have Manchin's ear? One suspects not.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. That might be a nose...

Perhaps it’s a familial trait.

Manchin Family Values

Fred Gardner
Counterpunch.org, June 10, 2021

Excerpt...

After some superficial improvements (a stronger spring, clearer instructions) that supposedly justified raising prices, Mylan began its big marketing push in 2009. With almost 90% of the market, their key goal was to get every school in the US to keep EpiPens on hand. Children face the highest risk of a fatal response because many never been exposed to the substance they’re allergic to. Adults generally know what they’re allergic to and try to avoid exposure or carry the antidote.

As Governor of West Virginia, Joe Manchin had appointed his wife to the state Board of Education in 2007. By 2012 Gayle Conelly Manchin would be president of the National Association of State Boards of Education, an official-sounding-but-private outfit that lobbies state boards to adopt policies favored by Association members. In 2016 USA Today (a paper that doesn’t get enough credit for serious muckraking) reported that Mrs. Manchin had “spearheaded an unprecedented effort that encouraged states to require schools to purchase medical devices that fight life-threatening allergic reactions.

“The association’s move helped pave the way for Mylan Specialty, maker of EpiPens, to develop a near monopoly in school nurses’ offices. Eleven states drafted laws requiring epinephrine auto-injectors. Nearly every other state recommended schools stock them after what the White House called the ‘EpiPen Law’ in 2013 gave funding preference to those that did.”

Snip...

Heather’s brilliant career was launched after Joe Manchin introduced her to the CEO of Mylan. Although her claim to have a Master’s Degree in Business Administration was exposed as a lie, her fast rise to the top was unimpeded. Heather had something better than a degree, she had real audacity. And so she quadrupled the price of a drug that several million US Americans must have on hand and buy every year. (Somebody ought to confirm that epinephrine degrades significantly in a year. It might be a pseudo-scientific marketing device like Dial Soap’s famous “Rinse and repeat.”)

Heather’s salary rose from $2.5 million in 2007 to $18.9 million in 2015. She was then 45 years old and would have become the poster child of Pharmaceutical Industry Greed had it not been for Martin Shkreli, who raised the price of the anti-parasitic drug Diapram from $13.50 to $750. Then the publicity-welcoming “pharma bro” won the auction for the world’s only copy of a hip-hop album by Wu-Tang Clan. Shkreli was sentenced to seven years and may still be doing time for securities fraud, but presumably, he got to enjoy “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” before the 2-CD rarity was seized by the feds.

Heather is married to a corporate lawyer named Jeffrey Bresch whose firm represents, in addition to numerous Fortune 500 companies, the Pennsylvania Republican Party in its challenge to the validity of votes mailed in on Election Day in 2020. (But that’s another story). Heather retired at age 50 in 2020 after arranging Mylan’s merger with Upjohn. The first woman to head a Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical company, her accomplishments included Mylan’s acquisition of Abbott Laboratories and a transfer of corporate headquarters to the Netherlands, bringing the merged companies’ tax rate down from 24% to 21%. The moral of the story is: you don’t really need an MBA to be a successful corporate executive.

Continues...

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/10/manchin-family-values/

[AllaN01Bear]

12. what do they (the super rich) do with all that $? they cant take it with them.

yet its too expensive for universal healthcare for all. id better pipe down now as this is a sore subject with me.

[Caliman73]

14. Money is a means to an end. It is about power.

Money buys power and status and "proves" that you are the "elect" or the "chosen" or the "elite", however you want to phrase it. The more you have the more you can demand from people.

[Irish_Dem]

15. I think it is like an addiction, no amount of money is ever enough.

They will do anything to obtain it, and are never satisfied.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Just wave your magic Democratic wand, damn it!

Politics is the art of the possible, not the best imaginable.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. If mine worked, there'd be publicly financed campaigns.

Free air time for qualified candidates, too.

Least the nutworks can do, actually.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. I'd make so many things magically happen

And so many things disappear.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Nick Hanauer, you might recall, wrote the essay "The Pitchforks Are Coming"

back in 2014. . .
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014/

https://nickhanauer.com/

He's also got a podcast called Pitchfork Economics:

https://pitchforkeconomics.com/
https://pitchforkeconomics.com/episodes/ (scroll down for the most recent episodes)

[blm]

6. He is spot on, though.

[Justice matters.]

8. Warren Buffet said his Secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does...

way back in...

Buffett says he's still paying lower tax rate than his secretary
by Chris Isidore @CNNMoney
March 4, 2013: 11:20 AM ET

https://money.cnn.com/2013/03/04/news/economy/buffett-secretary-taxes/index.html


Where did that go? Moscow Mitch & orange terrorist's (more) tax cuts for the rich.

[relayerbob]

9. He needs to make two phone calls

And not hang up until he has committments.

[SunImp]

10. He would get alerted on constantly if he was a Duer

.

[AllaN01Bear]

11. started w rr and as gretta thornberge stated , nothing but talk and bob and weave

for 50 years .

[marie999]

13. Any wealthy person who does not think they are paying their fair share

should give the difference to charities and not take any deduction on their taxes. There are charities that help the homeless, mentally ill, and poor. If they think the government should help certain groups and don't think the government does enough then give to those people. If they say they want to pay more taxes but don't give the money they are saving on their taxes away I am not sure they mean it.