You can always expect a billionaire, college dropout to demonstrate his ignorance when it comes to History, Economics, Fiscal Policy and anything involving government. Being a Sociopath who fucked everyone over to get to their wealth was their priority since they could speak. There are exceptions of course, as in those who did graduate or pursued higher degrees: Musk, Thiel and Ballmer.
What’s more fun to point out when the rich paid an obscene amount, yet were still rich beyond belief; the Republicans’ beloved Eisenhower and poster-child Tricky Dick were presidents who were OK with this. Oh yeah, income tax began under Lincoln to help pay for the war agains the insurrectionists and it was then put into the Constitution as the 16th Amendment via Teddy Roosevelt and Taft, the latter being a corporate bitch.
Spoiler alert as per Robert Reich and I’m sure Adam Ruins Everything covers it, despite the rate being as high as 91%, the Bezoses, Musks, Kochs and other assholes of their day never really gave up such an amount. They had their armies of lawyers and accountants to bring it down to something closer to 40-60%, depending upon how many libraries, opera houses or college buildings they bought. And yet they remained incredibly rich. You know, they owned multiple tackily furnished McMansions, sports cars, huge yachts, mistresses, airplanes, servants, politicians, businesses, sports teams, media outlets to express their shitty opinions, etc.
Then in 1980, St. Reagan suckered enough people with rich asshole backing to lower the rate to the 30-ish rate we’ve been adjusting ever since; I think we continue to be stuck with something as pathetically low as 37% (thanks Obama…seriously, I don’t recall if the Dems pulled it off). You’d think with a lower rate the über wealthy would drop all the shell games and just pay it; I would, 37% is easier to figure out than scheming a way out of 70. HELL NO. They continue to lie, cheat (stock options), hide (Switzerland’s UBS Bank actively helped, Ireland too), steal, find new scams (a form of “insurance” is the plan to avoid Biden’s taxes) and publicly bitch about how oppressed they are. In those four decades, American infrastructure has crumbled and the country can no longer disguise how far behind it is to Western Europe and related states. South Korea’s Internet speeds put us to shame. Now China is bagging on us with our decrepit airports and absent high-speed rail. Someone recently asked if America’s decline is comparable to the Roman Empire. The immediate answers was, no, Rome had good roads.
So when you hear another MAGAt asshat or apologist for the “moderate” Democrats saying the $3.5 Trillion plan is ridiculous, remind them how their moron grandparents said the same thing about how much winning WWII would run. Then hit them back after their moldy chestnut rebuttal of “how are we going to pay for it?” Obviously by taxing the über wealthy since they destroy jerbs or need tax abatements to create low-paying shitty ones. Besides, when it comes to pissing away trillions on war, spying on ourselves and inaccurate drones, you rarely ask the same question.
We also need to take back our Media (airwaves and the Internet we paid for) or least stop having them ask rich assholes for answers. As I said earlier, the majority are sociopaths. The only know how to save their selfish asses. They have NO CLUE and NO INTEREST in solving Climate Change. They do not know how real government works, only how non-democratic corporate governance does. Every time America elects a “successful” business guy, things turn out worse and in current times, they’re 0-2. The ones who haven’t used bankruptcy to shield their belongings, namely Sen. Mittens, think they can solve our problems like how they raped companies via their hedge funds…lay off half the citizens. Maybe they can be citizens of Mexico but stay here for a third of the wages.
Back to the picture/joke.
In conclusion. Ignore whatever Texas’ biggest welfare recipient, who isn’t a Walton, says.