'Stupid' and 'insane': Some billionaires vent over tax plan
Elon Musk isn't happy.
With a personal fortune that is flirting with $300 billion, the Tesla CEO — the richest person on earth — has been attacking a Democratic proposal to tax the assets of billionaires like him.
The idea behind the Democratic plan is to use revenue from a billionaires tax to help pay for a domestic policy package being negotiated in Congress that would, among other things, help combat climate change, provide universal prekindergarten and expand health care programs.
Musk, who recently blew past Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world No. 1 in wealth thanks to Tesla's soaring share price, would be liable for perhaps a $50 billion tax hit under the Democratic proposal.
Forget it, he says.
“My plan,” the SpaceX founder tweeted Thursday about his fortune, "is to use the money to get humanity to Mars and preserve the light of consciousness."
He may well get his wish. Prospects for the billionaires tax appear to be dimming fast in Congress. The pivotal Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is signaling his opposition to the plan along with some others, including some of his fellow Democrats, who have described such a tax as logistically impractical.
Earlier this week, Musk argued, the fundamental problem is that government spends too much money — and he warned that the billionaire tax proposal could lead over time to tax hikes for more Americans.
“Eventually," he tweeted Monday, “they run out of other people’s money, and then they come for you.”
The Democratic proposal, unveiled Wednesday by Sen. Ron Wyden, would tax the gains of people with either $1 billion or more in assets or three consecutive years of income of $100 million or more. It would apply to fewer than an estimated 800 people, who would have to pay tax on the value of tradable items, like...
