elizabeth warren
'Fight Goes On to Tax the Rich,' Says Warren After Supreme Court Ruling
"Right-wing billionaires hoped an obscure legal case would blow up the tax code to avoid paying what they owe, but this effort failed," said the Democratic senator after the Moore v. United States decision.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren was among the economic justice advocates cheering Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a tax on Americans with shares of certain foreign corporations—a win for the Massachusetts Democrat and other wealth tax advocates.
"Right-wing billionaires hoped an obscure legal case would blow up the tax code to avoid paying what they owe, but this effort failed at the Supreme Court," Warren said in response to the 7-2 ruling in Moore v. United States. "The fight goes on to tax the rich, pass a wealth tax on ultra-millionaires and billionaires, and make the system more fair."
Although the narrow decision doesn't explicitly affirm the constitutionality of federal wealth tax proposals from congressional progressives including Warren, court watchers had feared a ruling in favor of Charles and Kathleen Moore—a Washington couple who challenged the mandatory repatriation tax (MRT) in Republicans' 2017 tax law—would disrupt efforts to impose such policies.
The high court heard the case in December. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday delivered the majority opinion that the MRT "does not exceed Congress' constitutional authority." He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberals. Justice Amy Coney Barrett concurred in the judgment, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, who had faced calls to sit this case out.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas—who has provoked pressure to recuse himself from multiple cases or even leave the court by accepting and not reporting gifts from ultrarich Republicans—dissented, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch. Thomas argued "the Moores are correct" that "a tax on unrealized investment gains is not a tax on 'incomes' within the meaning of the 16th Amendment, and it therefore cannot be imposed 'without apportionment among the several states.'"
The Roosevelt Institute and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) warned in a September report that a decision siding with the Moores could have led nearly 400 multinational corporations to collectively receive more than $270 billion in tax relief.
"Today's ruling is a win for anyone who didn't shelter income in offshore tax havens before 2018," ITEP executive director Amy Hanauer said Thursday. "It preserves close to $300 billion of tax revenue paid by some of the biggest and most profitable corporations in human history."
"If the court had retroactively repealed this one-time tax, any other way of making up the resulting shortfall would have fallen far more heavily on middle-and-low-income families and small businesses," she added. "The Supreme Court also could have taken an activist turn of the worst kind by preemptively ruling federal wealth taxes unconstitutional today. To its credit, the court did not do so."
Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens similarly called the ruling "great news," adding that "next year, there is nothing standing in Congress' way to make the wealthy pay up."
Meanwhile, Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, had a more mixed response, saying that "we are relieved that the Supreme Court chose not to overreach in its Moore v. U.S. decision. The plaintiffs' patently absurd argument, based on incorrect and seemingly fabricated facts, threatened to upend the tax code and preemptively declare taxes on wealth and unrealized capital gains unconstitutional. The court chose not to do so."
"But we remain deeply alarmed for two reasons. First, it is now evident that four Supreme Court justices are enthralled by the influence of billionaires. In their concurring opinion, Justices Barrett and Alito asserted that unrealized capital gains cannot be taxed, as did Thomas and Gorsuch in their dissent, which said there is a realization requirement for income tax," Pearl said. "These justices have now signaled their intention to declare taxes on wealth and unrealized capital gains unconstitutional."
"Second, the Supreme Court should never have agreed to hear this case in the first place," he continued. "Billionaires are shamelessly buying influence on the Court. While seven Justices rejected this specific attempt by plutocrats to avoid their patriotic duty, this does not change the fact that several members of the Supreme Court have corrupt relationships with billionaire benefactors looking to purchase outcomes on the court."
This post has been updated with comment from the Patriotic Millionaires.
As Boycott Grows, Ocasio-Cortez Says Netanyahu Invitation 'Should Be Revoked'
"This man should not be addressing Congress," said the New York Democrat. "He is a war criminal."
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said late Tuesday that Democratic and Republican leaders should withdraw their invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak at a joint meeting of Congress next month after he released a video attacking the Biden administration for "withholding" weapons from Israel's military.
"This man should not be addressing Congress. He is a war criminal," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media. "And he certainly has no regard for U.S. law, which is explicitly designed to prevent U.S. weapons from facilitating human rights abuses."
"His invitation should be revoked," she added. "It should've never been sent in the first place."
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) formally invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting last month, roughly two weeks after the Biden administration all but acknowledged what leading human rights organizations had been saying for months: that Israeli forces have used American weaponry to commit war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
The invitation also came roughly two months after Schumer criticized Netanyahu in a speech on the Senate floor, accusing the prime minister of being "too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza" and calling for new leadership in Israel.
"The United States needs to be using its leverage, including restrictions on arms sales, as a way to advance a push toward peace in the Middle East."
Netanyahu, who is scheduled to address Congress on July 24 as he faces a possible arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, said in his video remarks Tuesday that the Biden administration "has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel" over "the past few months." The Israeli prime minister was apparently referring to the administration's decision last month to pause a shipment that includes 2,000-pound bombs.
But the administration is still moving ahead with other weapons deals with Israel, including an $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits that the Israeli military has used against civilians in Gaza.
Ocasio-Cortez's call for the cancellation of Netanyahu's scheduled address came as the number of Democrats planning to boycott the Israeli prime minister's speech continued to grow, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently announcing their decisions to skip the joint meeting.
"Benjamin Netanyahu has created a humanitarian disaster," Warren toldThe Hill on Tuesday. "The United States needs to be using its leverage, including restrictions on arms sales, as a way to advance a push toward peace in the Middle East."
"We need a cease-fire, massive humanitarian relief, the return of the hostages, and we've gotta have a breakthrough on getting the parties to the negotiating table," the senator added. "Giving more arms to Israel is not pushing in the right direction."
In addition to vowing to boycott Netanyahu's scheduled speech, some congressional Democrats are reportedly discussing "counter-programming" plans "focused on peace, bringing the hostages home, and ending this horrible conflict," Axiosreported last week, citing an unnamed House Democrat.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is among the lawmakers pledging to boycott the Israeli prime minister's speech, said Tuesday that "it is absurd that Netanyahu has been invited to address Congress."
"We should not be honoring people who use the starvation of children as a weapon of war," said Sanders.
In an email sent out on Wednesday, the progressive group Justice Democrats urged its supporters to demand that their elected representatives either boycott or disrupt Netanyahu's July 24 address, noting that the Israeli prime minister and his government "are still actively carrying out what historian Robert Pape has called 'one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history.'"
"We need our leaders in Washington to stop using our taxpayer dollars to send billions in weapons and bombs to Israel, and demand a permanent cease-fire and the release of all hostages—not roll out the red carpet for Netanyahu," the group added.
'Time to Stiffen Our Spines,' Says Elizabeth Warren of 2025 Tax Fight With GOP
"The American people are telling us that they are ready for a tax code that promotes their values, and Democrats must be ready to deliver."
As congressional Republicans prepare for Donald Trump's possible White House return by plotting to expand tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy that were the cornerstone of his first term in office, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday said Democrats must be ferocious opponents of another "GOP tax scam," while also providing an alternative vision.
"It's time to stiffen our spines," said Warren in social media post. "President [Joe] Biden is right: If the 2025 tax bill doesn't call on the wealthy and giant corporations to shoulder a bigger share of what it costs to run this country. Democrats should reject it outright. No more Trump tax breaks for billionaires."
As Common Dreamsreported earlier this month, Republican lawmakers are ready and eager to ram through an expanded version of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Falsely touted by Trump as a boon to working-class families, the law was a massive windfall for corporations and the rich and added trillions of dollars to the national debt.
"Democrats have good, popular ideas about taxes. All we need is courage."
"The 2025 tax fight will create a huge opportunity to break with decades of tax-cutting political orthodoxy and reshape the tax code to reflect our nation's values by raising taxes on the wealthy," Warren (D-Mass.) said during a Monday speech at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a think tank focused on economic issues.
"But let's be crystal clear: If Democrats take the coward's way out and sign our names to a half-baked deal that lets the wealthy off the hook, it will be a huge failure—and one the American people cannot afford," added Warren, who earlier this year was a lead sponsor of the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, a bill to strengthen anti-tax evasion rules.
Watch Warren's speech:
Last month, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that extending the 2017 tax cuts would add $4.6 trillion to the national debt.
An analysis published earlier this month by Brendan Duke and Will Ragland of the Center for American Progress Action Fund concluded that the GOP's proposed tax cut expansion would exceed the size of the federal K-12 budget for the current fiscal year.
Adding insult to injury, major corporations have funneled their tax cut windfalls into share buybacks, further enriching corporate executives and wealthy shareholders even as worker pay stagnates or even decreases and layoffs accelerate, as Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, noted during a Senate Budget Committee hearing last week.
Polls show Americans across the political spectrum favor raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.
"The American people are telling us that they are ready for a tax code that promotes their values, and Democrats must be ready to deliver," Warren asserted during Monday's speech.
"Democrats have good, popular ideas about taxes. All we need is courage," she added. "Courage to shake off a century of running for the hills every time the subject of taxes comes up. Courage to stand up to billionaires and corporate donors. Courage to say to the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country: Pay up."