December, 07 2021, 08:52am EDT
Patriotic Millionaires Target Senator Sinema With Pressure Campaign Over Carried Interest Loophole
The group took out full page ads with letter to Sinema in major Arizona newspapers, will protest outside her district offices with mobile billboard;
Campaign aims to pressure Sinema to support tax increases on rich to pay for Biden’s full Build Back Better Agenda
PHOENIX, Ariz.
Today, the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy business leaders and investors, launched a public campaign calling on Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to close the carried interest loophole, which allows billionaire private equity investors to pay lower taxes than most hard-working Americans. Members of the group, including Arizona-based member Karen Stewart, a former Certified Financial Planner and finance professor, have taken out full-page ads in local newspapers and will be protesting outside Sinema's district office to engage constituents and staffers directly about the pressing need to eliminate the special treatment the tax code affords the wealthiest Americans.
The campaign comes in response to Sinema's refusal to support closing the carried interest loophole to make the U.S. tax system more fair and to help pay for President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Agenda. Sinema is the only member of the Democratic Party in the Senate who is opposed to the measure.
Erica Payne, President and Founder of the Patriotic Millionaires, said,
"The carried interest is the most intellectually-indefensible, morally-unforgivable loophole in the entire tax code, and Senator Sinema's defense of it is patently absurd. Every Democrat in the Senate, even Joe Manchin, is on board with closing this ridiculous loophole except for Senator Sinema. It's time for her to decide who she works for: Arizonans, or private equity billionaires.
Karen Stewart, Arizona resident and Member of the Patriotic Millionaires, said,
"Senator Kyrsten Sinema's support for preserving the carried interest loophole for Wall Street elites comes at the expense of the tax-paying voters in her own backyard. Special interests and wealthy lobbyists should not decide the future of our nation. What American families need right now are lawmakers willing to prioritize them over the millionaires and billionaires, not a mouthpiece for the already rich and powerful."
On Tuesday, the Patriotic Millionaires also paraded a mobile billboard outside Sinema's Phoenix office, Grand Canyon University, the Arizona State Capitol, and Cronkite School of Journalism throughout the day. The billboard featured THIS image, a challenge in response to Senator Sinema's "internship" at a winery owned by private equity billionaire Bill Price.
In addition, Stewart and Payne joined Patriotic Millionaires Chair and former BlackRock executive Morris Pearl and the rest of the group's membership in penning an open letter to Sinema that appeared as a full-page ad in major local papers across the state on Tuesday. Below is an excerpt from the letter to Sinema:
"Do you think working people in Arizona should pay TWICE the tax rate on their income that multimillionaire investors like us, the members of the Patriotic Millionaires, pay on our income? Do you think that Wall Street fund managers - people who manage money for millionaires and billionaires like us but who have none of their own capital at risk - should pay HALF the tax rate on their income that working people in Arizona pay on their income?"
Full text of the letter can be found HERE.
The campaign in Arizona is part of the Patriotic Millionaires' ongoing effort to pressure legislators to support President Biden's Build Back Better Agenda and fully fund his plan through new taxes on the wealthy.
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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