Billionaire Bill Gates Slams AOC’s Tax Plan; “She’s Missing The Picture”
We all know that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s elevator doesn’t quite go all the way to the top floor and she’s demonstrated that time after time, especially with some of her proposed policies.
One of her problematic policies is her proposal on astronomical taxes for the rich. Get More Info on how one can get legal help with estate related matters.
Now, someone who has a little more knowledge about the rich than most of us do is someone who is very rich, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates.
During an interview with a podcast called The Verge, Gates addressed the tax policy proposed by Ocasio-Cortez and government taxes as well.
“Certainly, the idea of government being more effective in terms of how it runs education or social programs, there’s a lot of opportunity for improvement there. In terms of revenue collection, you wouldn’t want to just focus on the ordinary income rate, because people who are wealthy have a rounding error of ordinary income.”
“They have income that just is the value of their stock, which if they don’t sell it, it doesn’t show up as income at all, or if it shows up, it shows over in the capital gains side. So the ability of hedge fund people, various people — they aren’t paying that ordinary income rate.”
“The one thing that never gets much press — the IRS shows the statistics for the top 400 people of the highest income and the rate they pay. Anyway, you should look at that. It’s about a 20 percent rate, so it has nothing to do with the 39.6 marginal ordinary income rate. So it’s a misfocus. If you focus on that, you’re missing the picture.”
According to Fox News,
Gates, who stepped down from leading the software giant in 2006 to focus on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, added that there are politicians who are so extreme with their policy proposals, that they would start to create tax dodging and certain disincentives, while causing “income to show up in other countries and things.”
The tech titan did concede that taxes “can be more progressive,” including issues such as the estate tax and the tax on capital, the way the FICA and Social Security operate. “We can be more progressive without really threatening income generation — what you have left to decide how to spread around,” Gates said.
During the podcast, Gates also weighed in on a number of ideas that Ocasio-Cortez and more progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have championed, including “modern monetary theory,” saying it is “some crazy talk,” adding “It will come back and bite you.”
As of now, Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t made any sort of response to Gates, but with her never knowing when to shut her mouth, she’ll more than likely say something about how wrong he is about his own money.