If you’re following Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign, you’re watching the most diabolically clever display of populism since Donald Trump ran for president in 2016.
Trump trounced a dozen seasoned competitors by finding a way to connect with “forgotten men and women” who dislike and distrust traditional politicians. Many of those voters are sticking with him, even if he’s not doing much to improve their lives.
Warren has made a similar connection with voters disgusted by corporate cronyism and the billionaire class. She has put a friendlier face on Bernie Sanders’ soak-the-rich crusade, and even kicked it up a notch with a wealth tax on multimillionaires and a corporate surtax on big companies that use loopholes to whittle their taxable income to practically nothing.
Wall Street has noticed, a sign that Warren is succeeding. Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman excoriated Warren for bashing the rich and said he’d support Mike Bloomberg if he enters the race. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon complained that Warren is “vilifying successful people.” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates suggested Warren’s wealth tax is excessive, pointing out that he has already paid $10 billion in lifetime taxes and pledged most of his wealth to charity.
Warren responded to her billionaire critics by trolling them on Twitter and launching a wealth-tax calculator allowing billionaires to see how much they’d owe if her plan were in effect. She couldn’t have played it better. The billionaires are giving her free publicity, and she’s using it to make sure everybody knows why billionaires don’t like her: She’d take some of their money and spend it on education, child care and health care for the working class.
It gets better, because Warren will probably never get her wealth tax, even if she becomes president. The U.S. Constitution says that such taxes must be apportioned among the states in a way that’s proportional to population, which means the tax rate would vary by state and in some states be prohibitively high. There’s disagreement on whether a wealth tax is unconstitutional, but if passed into law it would undoubtedly end up in court, and possibly a Supreme Court with a conservative majority. So Warren can champion a wealth tax knowing she may never have to defend it, in reality.
For more on this story click here:
[ Ссылка ]
Subscribe to Yahoo Finance: [ Ссылка ]
About Yahoo Finance:
At Yahoo Finance, you get free stock quotes, up-to-date news, portfolio management resources, international market data, social interaction and mortgage rates that help you manage your financial life.
Connect with Yahoo Finance:
Get the latest news: [ Ссылка ]
Find Yahoo Finance on Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Follow Yahoo Finance on Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
