Billionaires are buying our elections! Unrig the system and tax them!

Americans For Tax Fairness just issued a distressing new report revealing that billionaires pumped over a billion dollars into the 2022 elections, nearly 75 percent higher than the last midterm campaign and 300 times more than billionaires spent just a dozen years ago. One out of every nine dollars in total political contributions from every source came from fewer than 500 billionaires.   Billionaire campaign contributions have exploded since 2010 because of the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision that year allowing unlimited donations to outside groups trying to influence elections. Billionaires also have plenty of money to invest in politics: their combined net worth increased by over half (58%) to a staggering $4.7 trillion during the roughly three years of the pandemic alone. That explosive wealth growth was thanks in part to a tax code that ignores big parts of their income, allowing them more free capital to finance elections or buy influence with Supreme Court Justices. ATF in its report urges a combination of tighter campaign finance rules and tax reforms on the rich to curb the outsized influence of billionaires on our political system.  David Kass, ATF’s executive director, states: “There are well-known solutions to the problem, including overturning Citizens United and effectively taxing the biggest sources of billionaire wealth, which now often go lightly taxed if at all. Those tax reforms include President Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax; taxing wealth like work by equalizing the top tax rate on investment and wage income; and closing the stepped-up basis loophole that allows investment gains to go untaxed forever. All that’s needed is for Congress to heed the call of the American people to unrig a corrupt system.” Will you? Because this situation is untenable for a functioning democracy. Thanks.

▶ Created on May 19, 2023 by Jess Craven