Patriotic Millionaires Evoke Bezos in Mobile Billboard Campaign Attacking W&M Chair Richard Neal

Today the Patriotic Millionaires launched a mobile billboard campaign targeting House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal on his committee's failure to eliminate the significant preferential treatment that the rich receive under the current tax code.

Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., said,

"Richard Neal and the House Ways and Means Committee failed the President, failed the country, and failed history. It's that simple. This is not what the American people voted for when they elected Joe Biden as President."

The billboard, which will circle the US Capitol all day September 14th beginning at 7am, as the W&M Committee deliberates, features an image of Jeff Bezos laughing accompanied by the text: "Tax me if you can," and "Oops! missed me (thanks Richie Neal)," as well as another image of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk with the text "It's not rocket science. Tax the rich!"

To view the image the truck will be displaying, click HERE.

The Patriotic Millionaires are demanding Rep. Neal, the House Ways and Means Committee, and Democratic leadership make the following changes to the bill:

1. End the preferential tax rate for capital gains income over $1 million as President Biden requested.There is no intellectual or economic justification for working people in America to pay a higher tax rate than investors.
2. Eliminate the "stepped up basis" that allows the heirs of billionaires to avoid capital gains taxes on inherited assets (provide a reasonable exemption for family farms and small businesses). The Committee's failure to address this problem at all is particularly troubling.
3. End the Carried Interest Loophole which allows fund managers to mis-characterize their "ordinary" income as capital gain income for tax purposes. The W&M proposal extends the hold time for investments to 5 years. Given that most private equity firms hold investments for 6 years, this change will have essentially zero effect. The loophole should be eliminated entirely.

This campaign follows intense opposition from the Patriotic Millionaires over the last week to House moderates' attempts to block President Biden's agenda and limit the scope of the reconciliation bill's tax hikes on wealthy individuals and corporations. Please see HERE a Politico piece from Friday detailing the organization's plans to hold centrist Democrats accountable for their obstruction.

Please also see our initial correspondence to the Democratic caucus HERE, our subsequent correspondence to the House Ways and Means Committee HERE, and a letter sent on Sunday to the White House urging President Biden to use any and all means necessary to pressure problem Democrats from blocking his agenda HERE.