(JustPatriots.com)- Ultra-partisan House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized the idea of a new tax on billionaires in late October, according to people familiar with the matter, during a call with senior Democratic legislators.
Pelosi reportedly told her colleagues that the move wouldn’t be much more than just a public relations stunt.
Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, who is the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, unveiled a new plan last month to tax billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The plan would have forced billionaires to sell off stock to pay for massive new tax bills, but the idea proved so unpopular with the public and moderate Democrats that it never went any further than simply being proposed by a handful of legislators.
Senator Joe Manchin, the moderate Democrat representing West Virginia, said that the plan would just punish business owners.
Wyden had been working on the proposed billionaires’ tax since 2019. Democrats initially turned to the idea after moderate Democratic Senator for Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema, pushed back against proposals to increase corporate and income tax rates.
According to The Washington Post, Pelosi was not happy with Wyden’s proposals at all. Citing a senior Democratic aide, the outlet said that Pelosi said that plan “lacked legislative text.” Pelosi reportedly made the criticisms as the White House was trying to finalize negotiations on their “bipartisan” spending bill.
She also reportedly said that the legislation was unlikely to win the support of all 50 Democrat senators – and wouldn’t be able to withstand a challenge from the Supreme Court.
Well, there you go. The Democrats – behind the scenes – do seem to know that their proposals are unconstitutional.
