Some millionaires, it turns out, want to pay more taxes.
A group of millionaires on Monday — national Tax Day, when millions of Americans have to send their hard-earned cash to the federal government — protested in front of Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos’ homes in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
The effort was organized by the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of people who have annual incomes of more than $1 million or assets worth over $5 million, CNBC reported. The group “planned mobile billboards that will make stops in front of Bezos’ homes in New York and Washington. Leaders of the Patriotic Millionaires told CNBC they are organizing a group of up to 30 protesters to converge on to Bezos’ New York residence with a billboard that says ‘Cut the bulls***. Tax the rich.'”
The mobile billboards will also head to the homes of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the offices of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in New York City, along with other sites in D.C., including former President Donald Trump’s Old Post Office hotel.
One billboard shows Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk laughing and says, “Tax the rich. Save America. Yes it really is that simple.” Another has the trio, again laughing, and says, “Tax me if you can.”
In order to pay for a $2 trillion infrastructure, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have been pushing to raise taxes on corporations — up to as high as 28% — and their CEOs, along with anyone making more than $400,000. Republicans aren’t on board with the plan, yet progressives are pushing hard.
“Jeff Bezos is the poster child for the total idiocy of the country’s tax code,” Erica Payne, founder and president of the group, told CNBC, noting that Bezos — worth an estimated $185 billion — is building a 415-foot yacht expected to cost more than $500 million.
The Patriotic Millionaires, it turns out, actually support the “ultra millionaires” tax plan from Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) ultra millionaires tax plan. Under her proposal, anyone worth more than $50 million would pay an annual 2% tax, with billionaires paying 3% of their worth each year.
The millionaires’ campaign comes after some billionaires are pushing for the establishment of “universal basic income,” a government program that would give all citizens a set amount of taxpayer money, regardless of whether they have jobs.
Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, thinks people will need a universal basic income to survive in the future. “I think we’ll end up doing universal basic income,” Musk told a crowd at the World Government Summit in Dubai in 2017. “It’s going to be necessary” because of automation, which will replace millions of workers over the next 30 years.
“There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better,” he said. “I want to be clear. These are not things I wish will happen; these are things I think probably will happen.”