The world’s richest man is not happy over the billionaire tax proposal being floated as a means to finance the Biden administration’s “Build Back Better” infrastructure agenda.
What Happened: Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk shared his displeasure over the proposed tax following a tweet by Washington Post reporter Christian Davenport, who observed that “Musk would pay as much as $50 billion under the tax over its first five years,” which he equated with the cost of a space mission to Mars.
Musk responded to Davenport by tweeting: “According to their own estimates, this tax only covers ~10% of the $3.5 trillion spending bill. Where will the other 90% come from? The answer is you.”
He then followed up with a link to USDebtClock.org while declaring, “US national debt is ~$28,900 billion or ~$229k per taxpayer. Even taxing all ‘billionaires’ at 100% would only make a small dent in that number, so obviously the rest must come from the general public. This is basic math. Spending is the real problem.”
Musk added, “US Federal Debt/GDP was 56% in 2000, now it is 126% & climbing fast.”
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Why It Happened: The billionaire tax proposal would impact the 700 richest U.S. taxpayers with a 23.8% tax rate on their long-term capital gains on tradeable assets. With a personal net worth of nearly $300 billion, Musk is at the head of that exclusive demographic if the tax change becomes law.
Musk stated he had a more noble idea on how to allocate his wealth, tweeting to Davenport: “My plan is to use the money to get humanity to Mars and preserve the light of consciousness.”
Photo: Steve Juvertson / Flickr Creative Commons.
