The AFL-CIO is out campaigning for support of the Levin-Rangel Bill (H.R. 2834), which would raise the taxes on all Capital Gains profits.
I know that anytime I see either Levin’s or Rangel’s name on anything that it can’t be good. So I know that then they team up, that it must truly be an abomination.
Here is the AFL-CIO add:
Close the Multi-Millionaire Loophole
At present, the tax law permits partners of leveraged buyout firms and hedge funds to pretend that their fees are investment income that deserves capital gains tax treatment instead of compensation, which would be taxed at the much higher ordinary income rate.
Capital gains are taxed at 15 percent, By some estimates, the U.S. Treasury loses as much as $12.6 billion a year in these taxes. That’s money that could go to fully funding the five-year cost of expanding the public health-insurance program for low-income children, securing the Medicare and Social Security programs or restoring funding for public schools.
James Simons, founder of Renaissance Technologies and the highest-paid hedge fund partner last year, earned $1.7 billion, equal to the entire federal spending on maintaining the national park system. There is absolutely no justification for billionaires not paying their fair share of income taxes like the rest of us.
So let’s do the math that the unions are hoping we’re too stupid to be able to figure out.
15% of $1,700,000,000 is $255,000,000.
$255 Million dollars just in taxes, just on his Capital Gains. And there are hundreds of other people paying this rate on amounts not too far below that.
As much as I would love to only pay a 15% income tax, I’m thinking that this guy and others like him are paying their fair share.