Liberals demanding higher taxes on the rich is just another day in Washington, D.C., but those progressive voices have more in common than their politics of envy. Some of them also have the financial backing of liberal billionaire George Soros.
Patriotic Millionaires, Solidaire, Women’s Donor Network, Resource Generation and Responsible Wealth (a project of United for a Fair Economy) hosted “TAX THE RICH! A conference on Why and How” on April 10.
Soros gave $1.12 million to United for a Fair Economy (the parent group of Responsible Wealth) between 2004 and 2013. He’s also given millions to organizations represented by various speakers at the event. Economic Policy Institute (EPI) president Thea Lee was one such speaker. Soros gave more than $6 million to EPI between 2001 and 2014, and at least $200,000 in 2017.
[ads:im:1]
That didn’t include the $50 million Soros pledged in 2009 to help EPI launch the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), according to an EPI newsletter. Two more Tax the Rich event speakers were connected to Soros’ support through INET. Professor William Lazonick has done research funded by INET and Dr. Shannon Monnat was described as an “INET grantee.”
Soros himself also signed on to a letter to Congress from event co-host Responsible Wealth in November 2017, opposing tax cuts, according to The Washington Post.
The Post and other media were also involved with the “TAX THE RICH!” event. Liberal columnist and Post editorial board member Jonathan Capehart was a “speaker” and “facilitator” who asked Lee to talk about the notion “that if the rich are given all these tax cuts they’ll create more jobs.”
“You hear a lot of malarkey around incentive and efficiency in our tax code,” Lee claimed. “Everytime we open a debate about restoring sanity and progressivity to our tax code there are squeals of outrage.” She argued that there was “no evidence” that higher taxes lead to fewer jobs and such claims are “ridiculous.”
[ads:im:2]
She also called for structuring the tax code to “block as many exit ramps as possible” and invest in enforcing tax “fairness.”
Capehart wasn’t the only media participant of the event. Post opinion blogger Helaine Olen, The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, The Intercept’s D.C. Bureau Chief Ryan Grim, and TheHill.TV host Jamal Simmons were also speakers.
The entire event was built on two liberal assumptions: that “significantly higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires” is a necessity and that the government spending is the answer to societal problems.
