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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Sam Quigley, sam@patrioticmillionaires.org

"It's Time for Democrats to Step Up on the Stepped-Up Basis, Capital Gains, and the Carried Interest Loophole"

Patriotic Millionaires Demand Reconciliation Framework End Preferential Treatment for Ultra-Wealthy in the Tax Code

"If they have a framework and it doesn't change the rules that make Americans who work for a living pay higher tax rates than rich investors, then it is a bad framework."

WASHINGTON

Today, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Democratic leadership in the House, Senate, and White House have agreed on a framework of revenue raisers to pay for the party's budget reconciliation package. In response, Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

"The deal reached by Democratic leadership must go further than the utterly inadequate plan released by the House Ways and Means Committee last week. If they have a framework and it doesn't change the rules that make Americans who work for a living pay higher tax rates than rich investors, then it is a bad framework.

It's time for Democrats to step up on the stepped-up basis, capital gains, and the carried interest loophole. We are calling on Democratic leadership to:

  1. End the preferential tax rate for capital gains income over $1 million as President Biden requested.
  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).
  3. End the Carried Interest Loophole which allows fund managers to mis-characterize their pay as capital gain income for tax purposes."

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.

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