Say Bill Gates was actually taxed $100 billion.

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

(snip)

"When you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math about what I have left over," said Gates, who prefaced his remarks by saying he was willing to pay $20 billion in taxes.

As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is also running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, pointed out on Twitter, Gates' fortune is valued at roughly $106.8 billion, leaving $6.8 billion after the hypothetical tax hit.

(snip)

"You can't logic Gates out of his class interest," tweeted lawyer and activist Emma Caterine. "This is about power. We need a president who tells the billionaires to suck it up, not one who tries to win them over."

(snip)

"Saw someone tweet that taxing 100 billion dollars from Bill Gates' $106.8 billion would 'literally' bankrupt him and my bank balance would gently like to tell you to fuck off," San said.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/07/taxing-bill-gates-100-billion-counters-bernie-sanders-could-end-homelessness-and

[msongs]

1. say we cancelled the lockheed F35 program. How much would that save? nt

[TexasTowelie]

2. What?

Think how that would effect areas economically that have involvement with the F-35 program. Nobody in Congress would want to do that.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Bernie would be for that as well.

(snip)

We need a strong national defense infrastructure, but we need to focus more heavily on diplomatic alternatives to war, not maintaining unnecessary overseas military bases and not meddling in the affairs of other sovereign nations. We must focus on reorienting our foreign policy so that it keeps us strong yet does not deploy our service men and women to unwinnable wars and conflicts that do not pose a threat to the U.S. homeland. We must face the challenges of taking care of our over 20 million military veterans and their families.

(snip)

Bernie believes that we spend far too much money on defense and regularly votes against authorization of the bloated Defense budget. There is waste and overspending and a lack of accountability in defense spending. There are military contracts with companies engaged in fraud and mismanagement, have high cost overruns, and betray their workers by moving companies overseas. The Defense Department failed its first ever audit so 26 senators, including Bernie are calling for a full audit.

(snip)

Does Bernie support the F-35?

Yes and no. Bernie is proud that the Air Force selected the Vermont National Guard to base the first F-35 operations. He concluded that “as long as the F-35 is deployed anywhere, I believe we should strive to protect the Vermont Air National Guard’s mission and maintain hundreds of jobs here in Vermont.”

Nonetheless, Bernie has been highly critical “about cost overruns on the plane.” It has been called the most expensive weapons system in the world. The cost of the planned 2,457 planes is expected to cost $1.5 trillion over its 55-year lifespan which is almost four times the initial estimate. In addition, there were numerous delays and malfunctions during testing. After an F-35 exploded on a runway, Bernie called the program “incredibly wasteful.” Since 2001, members of Congress have accepted nearly $32 million in political contributions from the F-35’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin. Bernie has not accepted any Lockheed Martin contributions.

(snip)

https://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-military-and-veterans/

There is much more on the link.

[bullimiami]

4. silly arguments on both sides.

gates is loaded and will always be.
noone is taxing anyone for 90% of their wealth.

whats the point?

[Uncle Joe]

5. Of course no one is proposing that kind of tax, Bernie was just taking Gates' ridiculous assertion

and putting it into perspective.

[lettucebe]

6. That's basically the point -- they'd still be billionaires

Why hoard money? This nonsense that having the ultra rich pay a fair share, and them crying about it is ridiculous. They'd never notice the difference -- except on paper, and it's shameful more are not willing to just say yes.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Speaking of hoarders, imagine this being money.

At some point it becomes a mental illness.

[exboyfil]

9. In general they are not hoarding money

They own a significant percentage of the market capitalization of companies which they have founded and still exercise some level of guidance/control with.

To pay the tax man they will sell these shares, probably to the Chinese since only they have the cash necessary to make this purchase.

[exboyfil]

8. Just with current spending and revenue

If we seize all the assets of the top 15 wealthiest individuals, we would just about cover the deficit for this year.

[Uncle Joe]

10. We had a relatively small deficit in 2007 but that didn't keep us out of the great recession.

However a trillion dollars toward domestic priorities could go a long way toward strengthening our national economy while increasing U.S. GDP.

[hedda_foil]

11. Senator Warren is in no way suggesting confiscatory taxation. This is ludicrous.

[exboyfil]

12. Never said she was

I was just pointing out that plucking the rich isn't going to solve the fiscal issues. They need to pay more, but a lot of other hard decisions will need to be made.