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For Immediate Release
July, 03 2025, 05:18pm EDT
Contact:
Sam Quigley,,sam@patrioticmillionaires.org
Patriotic Millionaires: Another nail in the coffin of democratic capitalism
After returning to the House of Representatives following its passage in the Senate on Tuesday, House Republicans voted today to pass their party’s massive tax and spending bill—the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—by a vote of 218-214. The legislation now moves to President Trump for his official signature ahead of the July 4th holiday.
In response, Erica Payne, Founder and President of Patriotic Millionaires, said:
“As Patriotic Millionaires predicted back in January, this bill was always going to pass. Since then, we have seen cynical acts of performative politics, only for elected officials to sell out working people and hand over tax cuts to their wealthy donors and benefactors. This is another nail in the coffin for democratic capitalism. Lawmakers have no issue taxing working people into poverty as the cost of living continues to skyrocket if it means ensuring the investor class does not pay their share of taxes. This legislation just handed oligarchs the keys they needed to drive policy decisions and to subvert American democracy for their own financial gain, and we will all be worse off for it.”
Morris Pearl, Chair of Patriotic Millionaires and a former Managing Director at BlackRock, said:
“Republicans placed their bets on corporations and the ultra-wealthy over working people, most of whom will suffer from the outrageously uneven playing field they have created. Throughout all of these changes to the tax code and beyond, wealthy people will be fine in the short term, but the damage done to working people, and eventually to our whole society, will be irreparable.
By passing this bill, Republicans caused and created real harm that cannot be understated. They put us further down a path towards oligarchy that will now be much harder to get off. Republicans must come to terms and realize that in their pursuit to give the ultra-wealthy tax cuts, they also co-signed onto the beginning of the end of American democracy. We cannot and will not let them absolve themselves of the economic ruin they will bring to working people across the country.”
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
Powell Gives Extraordinary Show of Support to Fed Governor Targeted by Trump
The president is trying to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud. Critics say he's targeting another one of his political foes.
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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reportedly plans to attend Wednesday's US Supreme Court oral arguments in the case involving President Donald Trump's attempt to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook.
A "person familiar with the matter" told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Powell would attend the high court session in the face of Trump's unprecedented effort to oust one of the seven members of the Fed's governing board.
Last August, Trump announced his termination of Cook—an appointee of former President Joe Biden—for alleged fraud, accusing her of signing two primary residence mortgages within weeks of each other. An investigation published last month by ProPublica revealed that Trump did the same thing that he's accusing Cook of doing.
Cook denies any wrongdoing, has not been charged with any crime, and has filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s attempt to fire her. In October, the Supreme Court declined to immediately remove Cook and agreed to hear oral arguments in the case.
In what many critics allege is an attempt by Trump to strong-arm the Fed into further interest rate cuts, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier this month served the central bank with grand jury subpoenas related to Powell's congressional testimony on renovations to Fed headquarters in Washington, DC.
Powell—who was nominated by Trump in 2017 and whose four-year term as Fed chair ends May 15—responded by alleging that “the threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president."
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Trump is trying to install his puppets at the Fed.First by trying to fire Lisa Cook and rushing in his top econ adviser.Now by abusing the law to try to push Jerome Powell out for good.Next he'll nominate a new Chair—and Trump says “anybody that disagrees" with him is out.
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— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) January 15, 2026 at 7:54 AM
In addition to Cook, Trump has targeted a number of Democrats with what critics say are dubious mortgage fraud claims.
Last November, a federal judge dismissed a DOJ criminal case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was charged with bank fraud and false statements regarding a property in Virginia. Critics called the charges against James—who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial crimes—baseless and politically motivated. A federal grand jury subsequently rejected another administration attempt to indict James.
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Officials in both Texas and Minnesota are calling for accountability and a full investigation into conditions at Camp East Montana, the sprawling detention complex at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, following the third reported death at the facility in less than two months.
Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minneapolis, where ICE has been carrying out violent immigration arrests, cracking down on dissent, and where one officer fatally shot a legal observer earlier this month.
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A month prior of Lunas Campos' death, 49-year-old Guatemalan immigrant Francisco Gaspar-Andres died at a nearby hospital; he was a detainee at Camp East Montana. ICE said medical staff attributed his death to "natural liver and kidney failure.”
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan called for a "complete and transparent investigation" into what happened to Diaz after his death was announced Sunday.
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