Wealth tax: 'Little chance of passing through the Congress'

[left-of-center2012]

Clinton Treasury Secretary knocks wealth tax: 'Little chance of passing through the Congress'

Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Larry Summers last week slammed the idea of a wealth tax proposed by some Democratic presidential candidates while speaking as part of a panel on economic inequality.

Top tier 2020 hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have both backed a wealth tax as a way to combat income inequality.

“For progressives to invest their energy in a proposal that the Supreme Court has better than a 50 percent chance of declaring unconstitutional, that has very little chance of passing through the Congress, whose revenue potential is extraordinarily in doubt — for that to be the defining element in the progressive agenda in the United States, it seems to me to potentially sacrifice an immense opportunity,” Summers said while speaking at the Peterson Institute.

Summers prefaced his speech saying he was speaking as someone who believes in a "government that does substantially more to help the middle class and the poor."

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/466851-former-clinton-treasury-secretary-knocks-wealth-tax-very-little-chance-of

[DrToast]

1. And it's completely unnecessary

I don’t know why anyone would waste time pursuing this.

We have ways to tax the rich already.

[redqueen]

4. Yes, he discusses some of those in that same speech.

His part starts about 20 minutes in. Mankiw at 38 gives even more reasons why the wealth tax is really not the best way to go about this.

[Hoyt]

2. Time to bash Summers for suggesting Warren and Sanders have no easy funding source for proposals.

[turbinetree]

3. You Know what Warren and Sanders has got it right........................I for one am really tired

of subsidizing people, firm's and that don't pay taxes...................23% tax give me a fucking break, they use to pay 33.9% and upward to 90%, and over half of these people and firms didn't pay one cent last year alone...................I get slammed if I pay more than $10,000.01 in mortgage and property taxes, in that 1.5 trillion tax cut scam, and my social security and medicare is under attack,m because of that shit show................, while "some people and firms" hide there money off shore and don't pay squat........................or they turn REITS into everything and get a depreciation write off .....................BS...............

[Kahuna7]

6. It's a silly gimmick. Red meat. nt

[LAS14]

8. Which is why it's as important to take the senate and keep the house as it is...

.... to elect Warren.

[DrToast]

9. It has no chance of passing a Democratic Congress either

[Thekaspervote]

10. This!! Isn't gonna happen. Can't say I'm not in favor of it. I like unicorns and fairy dust too!

[Sinistrous]

11. Absoluely correct.

Last edited Wed Oct 23, 2019, 09:42 AM - Edit history (1)

Nobody can afford to upset those deep pockets all the politicians depend on for those big dollar donations.

We can't let a good idea get in the way of the cash flow.