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Danger: Wealth Tax Ahead · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren is added again she's using Elon Musk's emergence
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  Speaker 1: as a trillionaire to bring her wealth tax proposal back
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  Speaker 1: into the spotlight. Warren recently posted on AX quote, if
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  Speaker 1: Elon Musk paid my ultra millionaire wealth tax, we could
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  Speaker 1: pay for childcare for all three and four year olds
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  Speaker 1: in America. Sounds appealing. It isn't, because this debate isn't
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  Speaker 1: really about Elon Musk. It's about whether government should have
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  Speaker 1: the power to tax wealth itself. Not income, not profits,
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  Speaker 1: but assets you've already accumulated and spent years doing so.
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  Speaker 1: And it's not just billionaires. Under Warren's proposal, households worth
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  Speaker 1: more than fifty million dollars would be subject to an
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  Speaker 1: annual wealth tax. Some may shrug and say that doesn't
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  Speaker 1: affect me. Maybe not today, but history suggests governments rarely
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  Speaker 1: become satisfied with a new source of revenue when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to the federal income tax. In nineteen thirteen, more
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  Speaker 1: than ninety five percent of Americans paid nothing. If you
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  Speaker 1: imagined how broad that tax would eventually become, there's also
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  Speaker 1: the constitutional question. The Sixteenth Amendment authorized an income tax
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  Speaker 1: without apportionment among the states it mentions income, not wealth.
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  Speaker 1: Supporters believe a wealth tax could survive court challenges. Opponents disagree.
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  Speaker 1: If Congress ever passed one, the Supreme Court would almost
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  Speaker 1: certainly have the final word. Then there are the economic realities.
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  Speaker 1: A wealth tax applies whether assets generate cash or not. Farmers,
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  Speaker 1: business owners, and investors could face tax bills without selling
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  Speaker 1: anything or receiving any income. To pay, they may have
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  Speaker 1: to sell those productive assets. Europe has already tested this idea.
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  Speaker 1: According to the Office of Economic Cooperation and Development, the
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  Speaker 1: number of member nations imposing net wealth taxes fell from
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  Speaker 1: twelve in nineteen ninety to just four by twenty seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: amid concerns about low revenue, valuation problems, administrative complexity, and
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  Speaker 1: capital flight. So this isn't really about Elon Musk. It's
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  Speaker 1: about whether Americans want government to gain a new claim
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  Speaker 1: on accumulated wealth and whether that door wants opened ever closes.
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  Speaker 1: It's a policy issue Americans should talk about now before
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  Speaker 1: Washington does what it usually does, just decides it knows
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  Speaker 1: best and moves on.