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erica payne
Patriotic Millionaires Unveil Platform to 'Beat the Broligarchs'
"Our economy should be judged on how well it takes care of working people, not on how many billionaires it mints in a calendar day," said the founder of the economic justice group.
Apr 07, 2025
With economists warning that U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war will raise the cost of living for millions of American families and could soon fuel a recession, the economic justice group Patriotic Millionaires on Monday unveiled a "bold, surprisingly simple economic framework" to stop the oligarchy from amassing more power at the expense of working people and "permanently stabilize the economic lives of working people."
Four pieces of legislation would form the basis of America 250: The Money Agenda, which Patriotic Millionaires proposed at an "expert town hall" titled "How to Beat the Broligarchs."
The agenda would include:
- The Cost of Living Tax Cut Act, providing an exemption on federal taxes equal to the median cost of living for a single adult with no children—$41,600 per year—with the responsibility for those revenues shifted from the working class to the millionaire class with a millionaire surtax;
- The Cost of Living Wage Act, raising the minimum wage to $21 per hour to match the cost of living for a single adult with no kids;
- The Equal Tax Act, equalizing tax rates for capital gains and income over $1 million and closing the "stepped-up basis loophole" which minimizes "the tax obligations of the uberwealthy"; and
- The Anti-Oligarch Act, implementing significant taxes on the intergenerational transfer of wealth, on large sums of trust-held wealth, and on the true economic income of America's ultrarich to prevent further wealth concentration at the top, and taxing the wealth of the ultrarich sufficiently—including through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The latter proposal, said Patriotic Millionaires, "is a long overdue response to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis' warning from a century ago: 'We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated into the hands of a few, but we can't have both.'"
"The extreme concentration of wealth has always, without fail, translated into an extreme concentration of political power. The stakes for the nation couldn't be more clear," said the group. "We must act immediately."
At the How to Beat the Broligarchs event on Monday, the group assembled experts including economist Stephanie Kelton, Helaine Olen of the American Economic Liberties Project, and historian Rutger Bregman to discuss how unchecked wealth in the U.S. has captured the political and judicial systems—with "broligarchs" like tech CEO Elon Musk and others "working to pull the strings of the government towards their interests at the expense of the American people."
"America's slide into oligarchy necessitates bold actions in order to reclaim democratic capitalism and forge a prosperous, equitable, and just future," said Erica Payne, founder and president of Patriotic Millionaires. "America 250: The Money Agenda is the only plan that will get us there. It will change not just our own lives, but the future and direction of our country. Our economy should be judged on how well it takes care of working people, not on how many billionaires it mints in a calendar day. By that measure, America is flunking its economics class. The only way to get better marks—and stop our country's slide into oligarchy—is by fixing our tax code."
Erica Payne: "This economy should be judged on how well it takes care of people, not on how many billionaires it prints in a calendar day. Every great country starts with a great economy." pic.twitter.com/DXofvmwYNO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 7, 2025
Morris Pearl, board chair of the group, said that if Congress enacts the legislative agenda proposed on Monday, "we will build a community dedicated to the common purpose of improving the lives of all working people in our country—not just the ultrawealthy."
"America 250 will bring to account the politicians and their enablers who are sustaining our backwards status quo and demand better leaders to put us on a better, more sustainable path," said Pearl. "The time for economic exploitation is over."
Testimony to UN Panel: 'Tax the Rich. Save the World'
"When too much money turns into too much power, it threatens us all," said Patriotic Millionaires president Erica Payne.
Mar 20, 2024
The founder of a group of millionaires that campaigns for a more progressive and just tax system said during a United Nations hearing on Tuesday that governments must increase taxes on the rich before it is too late to rescue democracy from the corrosive impacts of wealth concentration.
Failure to do so, warned Patriotic Millionaires president Erica Payne, "will not end well for anyone, including millionaires."
"This is not an act of kindness or of philanthropy," Payne said during a special meeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council. "It is in our own self-interest. The far-right is on the rise around the world. If we do not address the twin crises of wealth concentration and inequality, we will face in the next decade the wholesale dismantling and eventual death of liberal democracy, of justice, and of basic human freedom."
Watch Payne's remarks in full:
Patriotic Millionaires, which has chapters in both the United States and United Kingdom, released survey results earlier this year showing that nearly three-quarters of millionaires in G20 countries support higher taxes on extreme wealth to improve key public services and address cost-of-living crises.
Additionally, the poll found that a majority of respondents see the vast accumulation of wealth at the very top as a threat to democracy.
Payne said Tuesday that "nearly 1,000 millionaires from across the globe have joined us in calling on governments to tax extreme wealth." In recent decades, top marginal tax rates around the world have plummeted, allowing the ultra-rich to amass eye-popping fortunes that they have used to impose their will on political processes and policy debates.
"Since 2020, five billionaires have doubled their wealth, while five billion of the poorest people in this world got even poorer. Children starve while billionaires fly their rockets into space," Payne said. "You may not care how much money a person has, but you likely do care how much power someone has. When too much money turns into too much power, it threatens us all."
"The single only way to preserve the chance of freedom and democracy, the only way to save this planet and humanity, is to tax extreme wealth."
Payne argued that "there are no benevolent billionaires" or "public-minded plutocrats" and implored policymakers to weigh the potentially disastrous consequences of not taxing extreme wealth, in addition to considering how and how much the rich should be taxed.
"The single only way to preserve the chance of freedom and democracy, the only way to save this planet and humanity, is to tax extreme wealth," said Payne. "Yes, the math might be a little complicated. I trust you all can figure that out. The principle itself is not complicated. Tax the rich. Save the world. It is that simple."
Payne's remarks came a day after an Institute for Policy Studies analysis of Forbes data found that the collective fortunes of U.S. billionaires have grown by nearly 88% to $5.5 trillion over the past four years.
On Tuesday, a group of congressional Democrats introduced legislation that would tax U.S. fortunes over $50 million.
Patriotic Millionaires was among the organizations that endorsed the bill, titled the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act. Morris Pearl, the chair of the group, said in a statement that "contrary to popular belief, billionaires and millionaires like me do not amass such extraordinarily large fortunes because we work harder or because we are more talented than Americans who work for a living."
"Instead, it's because we rigged the tax code so that wealthy people like us who make most of our money off our assets pay next to nothing—or sometimes literally nothing—in taxes," said Pearl. "The Ultra-Millionaire Tax will be an important first step in requiring the rich to finally start paying their rightful share in taxes, thus reining in the destabilizing level of economic inequality that plagues our country and threatens our democracy."
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