Patriotic Millionaires Lobby Against Tax Loophole for Hedge Fund Managers

The Patriotic Millionaires are now an official federal lobbying organization. Their aim is to make the federal tax code fair to everyday Americans rather than partial to the wealthiest of the wealthy (even though they are part of that class). First on their list is the all but indefensible "carried interest tax loophole," which allows hedge fund managers to pay a lower tax rate on their income than working class and middle class Americans.

This report from Eric Byler of TYT Politics includes a press conference hosted by Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Representative Sanders Levin (D-MI).

A press release read as follows:

The Patriotic Millionaires will demand Congress prove they are not choosing a relationship with a few thousand millionaires/billionaires over the interests of average Americans.

Below are selected portions of the remarks that the Patriotic Millionaires will be giving during their morning press conference at the Capitol Building. The open press conference will be taking place in Room S-120 at 9:30 am EST.

"Our current political and cultural environment is marred by a toxic belief that the country’s economic order is rigged against ordinary Americans — that the world of high finance unjustly supersedes their rights, needs and wants,” said Patriotic Millionaire Alan Patricof, co-founder and Managing Director of Greycroft Partners, "For that reason alone, our support for the closing of carried interest loophole would carry great symbolic weight. It is time to demonstrate a little more patriotism, and a greater sense of fairness, even if it affects our pocketbook."

"Investment managers such as myself earn carried interest as a fee for their labor in handling financials, just as plumbers, doctors, or teachers earn income for their labor every day. Except, unlike any other profession, investment managers pay a lower capital gains tax rates on money earned from this labor- a rate that can be as little as half of what every other American is paying,” said Patriotic Millionaire Art Lipson, Principle of Western Investment, "The only explanation for why I, as a manager of partnerships, pay a lower rate on the money I make, is our corrupt tax code. It's time to end the carried interest tax loophole and move towards a more fair tax system.”

"There is no more striking example of the cost of corruption than tax loopholes that benefit the 1 percent of the 1 percent. At a time when wages for working people have stagnated at 1990 levels, it is an outrage for a small group of fund operators to have their income taxed at a lower rate. Closing the carried interest loophole would be an important step toward a more economically equitable America,” said Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and former Managing Director of BlackRock, Inc. "It's indefensible. It's a loophole that everybody from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton knows should be closed."

Leaders of the Patriotic Millionaires are advocating on behalf of Senator Baldwin and Representative Levin’s legislation, The Carried Interest Fairness Act (S.1686, H.R. 2889), to close this egregious example of money’s corruptive influence in policy. Members of the Patriotic Millionaires will be available for interviews throughout the day.

Additional Patriotic Millionaires at the conference will include: Patriotic Millionaire Chuck Collins, founder of Wealth for the Common Good and Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies; Patriotic Millionaire Phil Edmundson co-founder and CEO of William Gallagher Associates, one of the largest commercial insurance brokerage businesses in the country; Patriotic Millionaire Woody Kaplan, founder of Civil Liberties List; Patriotic Millionaire John Driscoll, CEO of CareCentrix; ​and Patriotic Millionaire Suzanne Nash, MOM's Organic Markets.

For more details or to coordinate interviews with the members, please contact Justin Strekal, jstrekal@patrioticmillionaires.org, 216-956-0963.