President Joe Biden asserted once again that he’s “a capitalist,” urging American entrepreneurs during a stop in Milwaukee that “if you can make a billion dollars, go make it.”
“I’m serious,” the President added.
Biden just has one request for those who are lucky and industrious enough make a reality out of their dreams of outsize financial success. “Just pay a little more in taxes than you’re paying now,” Biden said, “Eight percent doesn’t quite get it.”
Biden in Milwaukee: "I'm a capitalist. If you can make $1 billion, go make it. I mean it. Just pay a little more taxes than you're paying right now. 8 percent doesn't quite get it." pic.twitter.com/AodARhtedA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 15, 2023
Biden, who is often portrayed as anti-free market by his political opponents, isn’t espousing a radical or anti-capitalist view here, as he overtly declares by saying “I’m a capitalist.”
The President’s suggestion that the rich pay higher taxes is a commonly held idea among some of the wealthiest people on earth. American business icon and Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett — the most successful American investor in history — has said the same thing as Biden. And Buffett is what is commonly called the capitalist’s capitalist.
“The wealthy are definitely undertaxed relative to the general population,” Buffett, the Berkshire-Hathaway chief, has said repeatedly, including during a CNBC interview in 2019.
“I continue to believe that the tax code should be changed substantially,” Buffett said in 2021. “I hope that the earned-income tax credit is increased substantially and additionally believe that huge dynastic wealth is not desirable for our society.”
Buffett’s friend and fellow super-rich billionaire Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has espoused the same notion, saying in 2018: “I’ve paid more taxes, over $10 billion, than anyone else, but the government should require people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes.”
Abigail Disney, granddaughter of a co-founder of the Walt Disney Company, has spoken about how her grandfather sometimes paid a 90 percent tax and still managed to amass a fortune. [Note: From 1944 to 1963, the top marginal tax rate in the U.S. was 91%, which applied to income over $200,000.]
Disney recently retweeted this:
Elon Musk wealth:
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) August 9, 2023
2014: $8 billion
2023: $227 billion
Jeff Bezos wealth:
2014: $32 Billion
2023: $161 Billion
Bill Gates wealth:
2014: $76 billion
2023: $117 billion
Federal minimum wage:
2014: $7.25
2023: $7.25
Tax the damn rich.
