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Friday, August 28th, 2020

As Trump Pushes New Tax Cuts for Wealthy, Analysis Shows US Billionaires $800 Billion Richer Since Pandemic Hit

Author:     Jake Johnson
Source:     Common Dreams
Publication Date:     Wednesday, August 26, 2020
 Link: As Trump Pushes New Tax Cuts for Wealthy, Analysis Shows US Billionaires $800 Billion Richer Since Pandemic Hit
Stephan:   Today I read that Jeff Bezos is the first man in the history of the world to have a net worth of $200 billion. To give you a sense of scale there are 189 countries in the world, and that is more than the Gross Domestic Product of 137 of them.  Jeff Bezos is personally the 52nd richest nation in the world, just behind New Zealand at $204 billion, and Greece at $203 billion. It made me think again, I have done stories on this earlier (see SR archives), how billionaires, in general, are doing under Trump during this pandemic when 20% of American kids aren't really sure where their next meal is coming from, or if it is coming at all, and tens of millions of Americans couldn't write a $4o0 check in a crisis.  Here's what I found.

As President Donald Trump and top members of his administration continue their push to deliver another round of tax cuts to rich investors, an analysis published Tuesday by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness showed that U.S. billionaires have seen their collective wealth soar by nearly $800 billion since Covid-19 began spreading rapidly across the country in March.

The new research found that between March 18 and August 20—a five-month period in which the economy tanked and tens of millions of people across the U.S. lost their jobs—the combined wealth of America’s more than 600 billionaires jumped by $792 billion, bringing their collective net worth to a staggering $3.7 trillion.

“By demanding even more tax cuts for the rich at this crucial moment, President Trump shows he is as out of touch with our nation’s needs as America’s billionaires are disconnected from our nation’s misery.”
—Frank Clemente, Americans for Tax Fairness

“For billionaires, this is a heads we win, tails you lose economy, boosted by Trump policies to funnel wealth to the top,” Chuck Collins, director of the IPS Program on Inequality, […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Friday, August 28, 2020 at 5:56 am

    I simply do not believe Trump could do the opposite of what he should be doing: taxing the rich to save our country, instead of tearing it apart and making the divide larger between the “Haves” and Have-Nots”. Only the ultra rich capitalist pigs would vote for a dirty, low-down prick like Trump.