One of the Democrats’ pet projects could backfire in a big way.
Mitt Romney is warning a radical new tax could cause billionaires to flee the stock market.
And it’s devastating news for every middle-class family counting on a 401k.
If there’s one thing the government excels at producing, it’s unintended consequences.
Taxing the rich is a staple Democrat talking point – and there’s been plenty of buzz lately about imposing an “unrealized gains” tax on billionaires.
But Republican Senator Mitt Romney says this is a desperate move on the part of Democrats, “They want to get something done for the president because he’s kind of circling the drain with the electorate in the country. And, as a result, they’re willing to do almost anything,”
And he says it’s one huge disaster waiting to happen.
In a Fox News interview, Romney said the policy has two obvious drawbacks.
First, it will discourage investors from building companies in the United States. (Imagine paying unrealized capital gains taxes on Apple – the most valuable company in the world.)
Secondly, it will cause billionaires to pull their money out of the stock market and put it into things that don’t qualify as “liquid assets” under the proposed law.
Romney pointed out that other assets like ranches and artwork collections don’t create jobs and stimulate the economy like the kind of investments that would be penalized under the proposed law.
Plenty of leftists took to twitter to mock Romney for arguing against taxes for the rich, but there wasn’t much substance to the conversation, which seemed to be centered around elementary school-style cheap shots.
Of course, little was said about what could happen to millions of American families dependent on jobs with public companies if new taxes were put into place that would pull the rug out from under the stock market.
CNN managed to find a couple of left-leaning billionaires who said they weren’t opposed to being taxed, but they’re not tripping over themselves to endorse Biden’s plan either.
“Yes, I would support anything into that is going to have the effect of being spent on increasing creating equal opportunity and greater productivity,” said Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates’ co-chairman and co-CIO told CNN.
But then he hinted at what he’s really thinking, “I’m not sure that is what Biden’s plan does.”
Hopefully, this bad idea is obvious enough that Democrats will let it die an early death.
If they do, the next important question is what they’ll manage to get conservatives to concede to in exchange.
If they don’t, even most Democrats will likely be wishing Donald Trump was back in office.
Stay tuned to Right News Wire for any updates to this ongoing story.
