SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
In New Book, Former BlackRock Exec Reveals How GOP Tax Scam Robs Middle Class and Rewards Wealthy
This Tax Day, author and reformed financier Morris Pearl sets the record straight on current tax policy and the GOP’s new tax law.
WASHINGTON
How can a working person who earns $77,000 in income pay $6,000 in taxes while a "millionaire sitting on a beach sipping strawberry daiquiris" pay zero on their $77,000 capital gains? Former Blackrock executive Morris Pearl answers this question and many more about the impacts of the GOP tax plan in his new book, How to Think Like a Patriotic Millionaire: Taxes, published by Patriotic Millionaires and Strong Arm Press.
"I want to challenge my fellow millionaires to get their heads out of the sand," Pearl writes in the book. "I'd rather fix things than retreat into a gated community with a private security force while the world outside the gates falls apart. You are destroying the country, our country, my country, and I'm not going to stand for it."
Pearl's book offers a devastating critique of how the GOP tax plan is set to throw our tax policy even further out of whack and enrich the fortunate few at the expense of working Americans. Though control of Congress may hinge on voters' views of the legislation in November, few Americans understand current tax policy or what to expect under the new tax law.
The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have promised that their tax bill would bring big benefits to working families and small businesses - lowering taxes, creating jobs, and growing the economy. As Pearl's book makes clear, this is the exact opposite of the truth. The tax bill instead represents a massive transfer of wealth from working people to the fortunate few.
Despite the millions already spent by the Koch brothers and other conservative groups to sell the legislation, voters in bellwether special elections haven't been fooled. Just yesterday, the legislation's chief architect - House Speaker Paul Ryan - announced he won't seek reelection in the face of a strong challenge by iron worker Randy Bryce.
Now, Pearl and the Patriotic Millionaires intend to carry the truth about the GOP tax plan to voters in battleground states through Election Day.
The book will be unveiled on Tax Day at an event in Washington, DC, featuring elected leaders like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, and progressive champions like Jeff Weaver, former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders.
WHO: Patriotic Millionaires, Members of Congress, progressive allies
WHAT: Taxation & Libations book release party
WHEN: April 17, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
WHERE: Pearl Street Warehouse, The Wharf, 33 Pearl St SW, Washington, DC
To RSVP for the event or to obtain a copy of the book, contact Sam Quigley at sam@patrioticmillionaires.org.
In How to Think Like a Patriotic Millionaire: Taxes, Pearl - a self-proclaimed traitor to his class - sets the record straight, detailing how tax policy is designed to reward money over work and how the new tax bill will make it even harder for those who work to get ahead. Drawing on his experience as a former BlackRock executive, Pearl explains how a millionaire could make thousands off their investments without logging a single day at the office, while a working person would pay thousands in taxes on the same earnings from a full-time job.
The book calls attention to many of the high-profile millionaires and billionaires who have pushed for changes to the tax code that further disadvantage working people, including:
- David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group, who has defended the carried interest loophole and - after donating money to repair the Washington Monument - scratched his initials into the marble.
- LinkedIn and PayPal exec Keith Rabois, who threatened to quit venture capital if the carried interest loophole were closed.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook, who avoided paying $40 billion in taxes by 'cooking' the books in Ireland.
- AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who cut thousands of jobs despite paying just an 8% tax rate - all while using the promise of job growth to push for more corporate tax cuts.
The book will be published by Strong Arm Press, which was founded in 2017 to be a progressive publishing house responsive to readers who want books to fuel and inform their increasingly active approach to politics.
Pearl serves as Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, an organization of high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors working to disrupt the concentration of wealth and power in America. Their mission is to build a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system.
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
(202) 446-0489LATEST NEWS
‘New Level of Open and Deliberate Defiance of International Law’: Israel Demolishes UNRWA Buildings
"What happens today to UNRWA will happen tomorrow to any other international organization or diplomatic mission, whether in the occupied Palestinian territory or anywhere around the world," said the agency.
Jan 20, 2026
Israeli authorities' demolition of the headquarters of the United Nations agency that has for decades provided aid and civil services to Palestinians in territories illegally occupied by Israel was about "more than destroying walls," said one journalist and rights advocate in the region.
The bulldozing of the complex on Monday attacks the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East's (UNRWA) "very mission since 1949, violates the rights of Palestinian refugees, and aims to erase the support system they rely on," said Maha Hussaini, head of media and public engagement at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
Hussaini was among those who spoke out as Israeli forces stormed the complex with bulldozers and began destroying buildings at the site after having sealed off the surrounding streets in East Jerusalem, the occupied city that Palestinians consider the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The Israel Defense Forces and demolition workers were also accompanied by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said the destruction of the compound, which has operated at the site for decades, marked a "historic day."
UN officials and other rights advocates, such as Jonathan Whittall—formerly the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories—said Israeli authorities were once again broadcasting their "contravention of their obligations under international law."
This morning, Israeli authorities are demolishing #UnitedNations property in #EastJerusalem, yet another live-streamed contravention of their obligations under international law. Just months ago, the ICJ reaffirmed that Israel "may not obstruct the functions of UNRWA in the OPT". pic.twitter.com/wqXvKzcKkH
— Jonathan Whittall (@_jwhittall) January 20, 2026
Whittall emphasized that Israel's destruction of UN property came months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) "reaffirmed that Israel 'may not obstruct the functions of UNRWA.'"
UNRWA released a statement accusing Israel of "a new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law," noting that the country is obligated "to protect and respect the inviolability of UN premises."
Ben-Gvir led the destruction of the headquarters more than a year after Israeli lawmakers passed a law banning UNRWA, and weeks after the country banned dozens of international aid groups from operating in Gaza. Israeli officials claimed in 2024 that a small fraction of UNRWA's 13,000 staffers in Gaza had been involved in a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, but an independent investigation found that they had not backed up their claims with evidence.
UNRWA noted that last week, Israeli forces stormed an UNRWA health center in East Jerusalem and ordered it closed, and water and power supplies to the agency's health and education buildings across the region are scheduled to be cut in the coming weeks.
"These actions, together with previous arson attacks and a large-scale disinformation campaign, fly in the face of the ruling in October by the International Court of Justice, which restated that Israel is obliged under international law to facilitate UNRWA’s operations, not hinder or prevent them," said UNRWA. "The court also stressed that Israel has no jurisdiction over East Jerusalem."
"There can be no exceptions. This must be a wake-up call," the agency added. "What happens today to UNRWA will happen tomorrow to any other international organization or diplomatic mission, whether in the occupied Palestinian territory or anywhere around the world. International law has come under increasing attack for too long and is risking irrelevancy in the absence of response by member states.”
In the UK, member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn spoke to his fellow lawmakers about the destruction of the UNRWA compound—on top of Israel's continued slaughter of Palestinians despite a "ceasefire" deal that was reached in October and settler attacks in the West Bank—and demanded to know: "When is the British government going to impose sanctions on Israel for its endless violations of international law?"
Israel has begun bulldozing the UNRWA headquarters in occupied Jerusalem.
When is the British government going to impose sanctions on Israel for its endless violations of international law? pic.twitter.com/YADND8varu
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 20, 2026
International law advocate and UN representative Mohamad Safa noted that Israeli authorities violated Article 52 of Additional Protocol (I) Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter when they took over UNRWA's headquarters and raised the Israeli flag there.
"Another violation of international law being broadcast live. Israel's impunity must end!" he said.
Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the UN could take Israel before the ICJ over its laws targeting UNRWA.
The UN, said Guterres, cannot remain indifferent to "actions taken by Israel, which are in direct contravention of the obligations of Israel under international law. They must be reversed without delay.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Coalition Urges Congress to Block All Funding for ICE 'Surveillance Panopticon'
"Milquetoast calls for better identification, bodycams, and training fall far short of what is required of you to meet this moment."
Jan 20, 2026
A broad coalition of organizations is calling on the US Congress to block funding for the mass surveillance programs being used by federal immigration enforcement officials.
In a letter sent to members of Congress, the groups decry US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for "leveraging a multi-billion dollar budget to terrorize our communities and build a surveillance panopticon" with no accountability from elected officials.
The letter then singles out several mass surveillance projects being carried out under the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that it says are worthy of defunding, including "building databases of biometrics, sensitive personal data, and daily movements of not only immigrants, but everybody in the US"; "purchasing technology to surveil all the phones in a neighborhood without a warrant"; and "recklessly relying on facial recognition technology that is banned in some states, and misusing that data to intimidate protesters and witnesses."
The groups call on Congress to completely defund ICE or, if that is not politically feasible, to "severely restrict what ICE can spend money on, including a complete moratorium on the purchase and use of surveillance tech" such as facial recognition and license plate readers.
"We urge you to do everything within your power in order to block ICE’s reign of terror in our communities and halt the build out of surveillance tech infrastructure that will make it impossible for everyday people to do anything at all without Big Brother watching," the groups conclude. "Milquetoast calls for better identification, bodycams, and training fall far short of what is required of you to meet this moment."
Signatories of the letter include the Yale Privacy Lab, digital rights organization Fight for the Future, and several local chapters of progressive political organizing group Indivisible.
ICE's big investments in surveillance technology were documented in an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) report published earlier this month, which found ICE "is going on a shopping spree, creating one of the largest, most comprehensive domestic surveillance machines in history."
The EFF report highlighted the role played by Cellebrite, a company that helps ICE unlock protesters' phones and "take a complete image of all the data on the phone, including apps, location history, photos, notes, call records, text messages, and even Signal and WhatsApp messages."
This is particularly important, the report noted, because the number of phones searched by ICE and other agencies has been steadily increasing, hitting a record high last year.
ICE also has a contract with Paragon, the company behind the spyware Graphite that "is able to harvest messages from multiple different encrypted chat apps such as Signal and WhatsApp without the user ever knowing."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Inflation Hit Average US Family With $1,625 in Higher Costs Last Year: Report
"While the president pledged that he would end inflation and now claims that prices are down, the data reflects what families are experiencing every day: higher costs that make it harder to make ends meet.”
Jan 20, 2026
A congressional report published Tuesday further undercut US President Donald Trump's claim that he has defeated inflation, estimating that the average American family paid $1,625 in higher costs last year as the Republican president's tariffs and broader policy agenda drove up prices across the nation's economy.
The new analysis by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) found that the $1,625 total includes $323 more for housing expenses and $241 more for transportation costs. In some states—including Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York—the average family paid more than $2,000 in higher costs in 2025 as prices for groceries, housing, and other necessities continued to rise under Trump's leadership.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the ranking member of the JEC, said in a statement that "President Trump has imposed reckless tariffs, driven up healthcare costs, and created economic uncertainty. And because of these choices that he made, Americans are paying over $1,600 more than when he came into office."
“While the president pledged that he would end inflation and now claims that prices are down," Hassan added, "the data reflects what families are experiencing every day: higher costs that make it harder to make ends meet.”
The JEC report was released just weeks after Trump falsely proclaimed in a year-end address to the nation that "inflation is stopped" and "prices are down." CNN fact checker Daniel Dale noted that inflation data released on the morning of Trump's December 17 speech showed that "average consumer prices were 2.7% higher in December than they were a year prior and 0.3% higher than they were in November."
Trump also used his primetime speech to hail the supposed successes of his tariff regime. But a report released Monday showed that US consumers and businesses, not foreign exporters, are shouldering nearly all of the burden of the White House's import taxes.
"Despite President Trump’s claims that 2025 was the 'greatest first year in history' for an American president, Americans’ attitudes about their economic security and the latest economic data say otherwise," experts at the Center for American Progress wrote Tuesday. "With increased costs of everyday items due to tariffs and fewer job opportunities, families are feeling the direct impacts of the Trump administration’s harmful economic policies."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular