Eat The Rich: Democratic Candidates Plunge Party Into Class Warfare Politics

Jonathan Turley

Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the growing calls from Democratic presidential candidates for “wealth taxes” targeting the increasingly demonized “super rich.” Putting aside serious questions over the constitutionality of such wealth taxes (despite being the core cause of candidates like Elizabeth Warren), Democrats appear to be moving from from Rousseauian to a Robespierrean rhetoric in this new class warfare.

Here is the column with a few of the underlying facts beyond the rhetoric:

“When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.” Philosopher Rousseau said those words about the French Revolution more than 200 years ago, but they could well have been a talking point in the Democratic debates this week. The candidates brushed aside repeated questions about raising taxes to pay the trillions promised for free college, universal health care, reparations and new homes for African Americans, free health care for the undocumented, massive investment in traditionally black colleges, and other “big ideas” that various candidates pledged.

What they all agreed on was that the “rich” would pay for much of it. The loudest in this declaration of class warfare was New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, who promised that “we will tax the hell out of the wealthy.” The growing Rousseauian chant to “tax the rich” is, of course, hardly new in politics. However, the current age of rage makes this call more menacing. Suddenly, the wealthiest citizens are being portrayed as virtual predators of the poor.

Senator Elizabeth Warren even seemed to be poking the chest of an imaginary tycoon in declaring that she was coming after  “your Rembrandts, your stock portfolio, your diamonds and your yachts.” I previously wrote that Warren’s concept of a wealth tax appears unconstitutional. Nevertheless, Warren continues to pledge to impose taxes on the most wealthy (2 percent for more than $50 million in assets, and 3 percent for more than $1 billion). Not to be outdone, De Blasio promised to top her tax plan, with a wealth tax on everyone worth $10 million or more.

The demonization of the wealthy continued as candidate after candidate spoke of how the top 1 percent was a virtual class of robber barons who are avoiding taxes or paying little back to society. Other Democrats like Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have called to increase the tax rate to 70 percent from the current 37 percent for income over $10 million. Just for the record, the top 1 percent of federal taxpayers paid 37.3 percent of taxes, more than the bottom 90 percent combined that paid 30.5 percent. The top 50 percent of taxpayers paid 97 percent of total individual income taxes. That means that the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers are paying virtually no income taxes.

To qualify as the top 5 percent of earners, your household needs to make $300,000 or more. To qualify as one of the top 10 percent, the cut-off is around $118,000. That does not mean that the wealthy should not pay more in taxes. However, Democrats are undermining their push for higher taxes by pledging trillion-dollar programs as if those would involve chump change. Want a house? Senator Kamala Harris will help pay for it if you are African American. Want free college tuition? Virtually all of the candidates are guaranteeing it. Hate your college loans? Gone, by order of Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Warren created a lasting gift during the debate when she gleefully rubbed her hands together after saying that she would take some of the wealth of fellow presidential candidate and former congressman John Delaney, a self made millionaire worth $65 million. For Republicans, it is the gift that will keep on giving well into the 2020 election. Warren relished the idea of grabbing the wealth of Delaney and others as she promised freebees to every swing group of voters. Like many politicians referring to “my” programs, the glee is in the spending, not the making of the money […]

via Eat The Rich: Democratic Candidates Plunge Party Into Class Warfare Politics — JONATHAN TURLEY

2 thoughts on “Eat The Rich: Democratic Candidates Plunge Party Into Class Warfare Politics

  1. Interesting read from Johnathan Turley Doc -but he’s wrong. This old retired guy living on affixed income paid more in taxes than Amazon and dozens of other corporations. And my taxes actually went up under Trump’s “tax cut”, illustrating something dreadfully wrong with the tax code.

    Everyone knows where the money is. 🙂

    Turley’s gonna pay a “more fair” share.

    Regards from Florida

    Like

  2. Excellent point, Toritto. My taxes also went up with the tax cut. Personally I believe we will only see true economic reform when we get banks out of the business of creating money and restore this responsibility to government. At present 97-98% of all money in circulation is issued (as debt) by banks when they make loans. Not only does this give banks way too much power, but it drives the necessity of economic growth. China’s central bank issues most of their money directly into the economy (instead of borrowing it from banks), and I believe this is the secret of their economic miracle.

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.