Bernie Sanders' wealth tax would raise $1 trillion less than he estimates, Wharton study shows

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Mon Feb 3, 2020, 01:20 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/wharton-study-bernie-sanders-wealth-tax-would-fall-1-trillion-shy.html

The Penn Wharton Budget Model assessed the budgetary and economic effects of two proposals from Sanders, I-Vt., to determine how his planned wealth tax and expansion of the estate tax would impact households and the greater American economy.

It found that the Sanders wealth tax would raise $2.8 trillion to $3.3 trillion over 10 years, about $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion shy of what the campaign projects.

The university said the estate tax expansion, meanwhile, would raise an additional $267 billion over 10 years and increase the percentage of descendants affected by the levy to about 0.5% in 2030.

The Wharton figures, if correct, would represent a marked shortfall for the Sanders campaign, which has pegged its wealth tax as integral to its campaign ambitions for proposals like “Medicare for All” and reducing student loan debt.

-snip-

[Hassin Bin Sober]

1. Isn't that where Trump graduated?

[George II]

3. Wharton College was founded 139 years ago....

Elon Musk and Warren Buffett also graduated from Wharton, along with thousands of prominent economists and businesspeople.

Why joke about the college? I guess you can't find fault with the message.

[Thekaspervote]

4. Snarky comments... maybe that's all that's left for them

[BannonsLiver]

5. It comes also from an inability to process nuance.

Wharton must be terrible because Donnie went there, etc.

[Sloumeau]

6. Wharton is actually a good school.

Donald Trump is just a crummy human being. In addition, the fact that he refuses to let anyone see his transcripts from Wharton means that Wharton probably graded him fairly.

[LanternWaste]

12. You reflect so very poorly upon your candidate.

There are times you do so with such a stubborn and mendacious cling to logical fallacies that I begin to wonder if you are actually working against the Sanders campaign with your performance.

[awesomerwb1]

2. Meh...Trillion here, trillion there

Who's counting? A dump from Bernie's magic unicorn should about cover that.

[Thekaspervote]

7. Maybe 2 dumps

[Cuthbert Allgood]

15. So we are ignoring the part of the article that indicate Biden is off by almost a trillion?

Good to know.

[judeling]

8. Lies, Damn Lies and statistics

No analysis of economic effect of any of the proposals is worth all that much. General trends maybe. But it just like weather forecasts the farther out you go the less they mean. The real question is would the proposals change the economic Climate in the ways stated.

[DanTex]

9. Also found that Biden's plan would fall 600M to 900M short of his estimates.

Who knows. Wharton is a business school, probably has a libertarian lean. None of the plans are going to pass exactly as they are written anyway.

[squirecam]

10. 2050

I think by 2050 there will be other effects on the economy more important than a 2020 tax plan...

[Hoyt]

11. Sanders and Warren have been making up numbers to make their proposals appear financially viable

without having to tax folks who aren't in top 20% (household income over roughly $120,000).

Many of the proposals are needed or helpful to quality of life. Just be honest about the cost and how it will be paid for.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

16. According to the article, so had Biden.

[Hoyt]

17. Biden is much closer to article's calculation than Warren or Sanders.

[Doremus]

13. Sanders answered this at the last debate.

He said his plans take into account the extra money flowing into the economy from taxpayers having more money in their pockets than before, something Wharton and Biden et al are ignoring.

People with more money to spend = more money being spent = more robust economy = everybody's boats lifted.

Oligarchs with more money = more money sent to offshore tax havens = everybody start bailing

[Recursion]

14. The problem is that Jeff Bezos doesn't actually have much money

He makes $85K a year and has since Amazon was founded. The really really uber rich are like that: they don't really keep much cash lying around. They own companies and parts of companies, which can be sold, but the "value" we assign them is based on multiplying how much some dude paid for one share yesterday by the number of shares they own, which yields these absurd sums that aren't in any way real.

[DanTex]

19. Which is why capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as income.

[Gothmog]

18. Neither Warren nor sanders proposals hold up under scrutiny

[Scurrilous]

20. Bernie Sanders' wealth tax will never get passed in Congress.

So what's a trillion less?

[betsuni]

21. K&R