‘Listen to Yourself!’ Elizabeth Warren Brings ‘Ultra-Millionaire’ Tax Proposal Into Lion’s Den of CNBC, Tussles With Joe Kernen
On Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and two House Democrats unveiled a proposal to tax the mega-wealthy — called the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act. On Tuesday, she brought that proposal right into the lion’s den — CNBC.
Appearing on the financial network’s Squawk Box, Warren defended her plan against criticism from CNBC host Joe Kernen. A noted fan of former President Donald Trump’s, Kernen had few kind things to say about the senator’s proposal, and took a tongue-in-cheek, kidding-but-not-really-kidding approach to criticizing it. The CNBC host questioned why Warren was only calling for a 2 percent tax on those with $50 million or more, and 3 percent on those whose fortunes exceed $1 billion.
“If we’ve crossed the Rubicon and said you have more money than you can ever spend, you don’t need it, you need to help out the rest of us, why not make it truly progressive and do 10 percent at a billion, do 20 percent at 10 billion?!” Kernen said. “Why not do it that way? … What would be the problem? Why would [Amazon chief Jeff] Bezos do 3 percent, when some poor schmoe at only 50 million does two percent?”
Unfazed by having just heard someone earnestly refer to a person with $50 million as a “poor schmoe,” Warren countered by saying that her plan, as presently structured, would generate $3 trillion.
“I think $3 trillion actually sounds like a lot of money,” Warren said. “And raising $3 trillion that we can reinvest in our economy — for just a minute, can we talk about what that 2 cent, 3 cent would be? It’s not punitive on those at the top. They can still grow their fortunes. But here’s the thing, it’s enough for universal child care. It’s enough for universal pre-k. It’s enough to make sure that every baby in this country has good care, and raise the wages of every child care worker and pre-school teacher in America.”
“Senator, you didn’t answer,” Kernen replied. “You didn’t answer me!”
Kernen went on to pursue his argument that the measure should tax billionaires even more. Warren sarcastically exposed Kernen’s pushback as disingenuous.
“I’m loving this morning!” Warren said. “I cannot believe that I’ve gotten you to say we should tax the rich more, Joe.”
“It’s not hurting me,” Kernen said. “It’s not hurting me, senator.”
“I’m loving this moment,” Warren said.
Later, the two tussled over the issue of stock buybacks. Kernen took umbrage with Warren’s opposition to the practice of corporations repurchasing their stock.
“Even if it does help the stock rise, why is that so bad for shareholders?” Kernen said. “For pension plans that own the stock? For state retirement plans that own the stock? … everybody’s doing better. Income inequality narrows.”
“Oh come on!” Warren said.
“We’re all winning, Senator!” Kernen replied. “We’re all winning!”
“This is nothing but paper manipulation,” Warren said. “‘Everybody’s doing better?’ Listen to yourself! Nothing about the business changed. They’re still churning out the same number of widgets, at the same cost, and selling them at the same customers. Nothing changed. But they got a little fluff and buff in their stock. And how did they do that? By taking their excess cash and saying, gee, we can’t figure out anything to do with this cash. We’re not going to give it back to our investors.”
Watch above, via CNBC.
