Maybe we could bill the billionaires?

Brother, can you spare 25 percent?

In a perfect world, Joe Biden’s plan to extract more taxes from billionaires would seem a slam dunk. Basically, it calls for a 25 percent tax on all wealth over $100 million. It would apply to the 0.01 percent of Americans who are literally the richest people on earth – people whose wealth is counted in the hundreds of billions, not millions.

These folks could pay a 90 percent tax and still never feel a difference in quality of life, in the sheer numbers of yachts and residences and private jets they can afford. But here’s something else they can afford: Congress. The Republican Party. Legions of lobbyists and wealth managers and tax experts who labor tirelessly to make sure all that obscene wealth stays right where it’s at. 

Biden’s plan will not be warmly received in the oligarch-controlled House. For all the GOP likes to talk about “hard-working” Americans in an election year, they seem pretty determined to make sure those who work for a living keep paying a much higher percentage of their income than, say, Elon Musk or Warren Buffett.     

Billionaires don’t get paychecks. They get richer because of what they buy and sell and invest – companies, real estate, stock. Bored Ape NFTs. That kind of proliferating wealth – the kind you don’t work for – is taxed at a much lower rate than a paycheck. Often it’s not taxed at all. 

You might think that’s unfair. You’d be right. It’s so unfair, and so nonsensical, that making it worse became a signature piece of legislation for Trump and his cronies in 2017. Trump still crows about that, knowing full well that the rubes at his rallies only hear “tax cut” and think it applies to them. That they will see the massive deficit it created and blame the current president. Which of course they are doing. 

In a perfect world, there would be no billionaires. There shouldn’t be any in an imperfect world either. Nevertheless, here we are. The tycoons of America should pay quite a bit more for the privilege.