Mitt Romney Deploys Old GOP Lies About Job Creation To Stop Potential Wealth Tax

The Majority Report crew discusses the likely outcome of the reconciliation bill — and it's not good. Sen. Mitt Romney appears on @FoxNews to describe why he is very much against a potential wealth tax, for all of the best reasons. Namely, if the U.S. were to discourage billionaires from living here, they would be discouraged from founding and running their businesses here. Hypothetical businesses which would create jobs, which would create hypothetical income for people all the way down the tax bracket ladder. It's kind of like the idea of trickle-down economics, if you've ever heard of that. Which works every time. Back to Mitt Romney, though: We were just kidding; he's against it because he's very wealthy.

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Sam Seder: Reconciliation bill goes on... We're going to be disappointed. Very disappointed; there's just no doubt in my mind. I don't know how else to put that and we're gonna have to deal with it. But in the meantime, one of the things that's getting floated — in part because Krysten Sinema does not want an increase in corporate taxes or the top marginal rate, apparently she is open to a billionaire's tax, we do not know exactly how this is framed. Whether it's a wealth tax, or if there's some type of like big donut hole, or we just don't know. Ron Wyden's been working on it in the Senate for two years but nobody's seen any documents about it. It has been one of those things that's been sitting on the shelf or at least been being worked on on a shelf.

Emma Vigeland: Ron Wyden's been in the lab with the pen and a pad working on that billionaire tax.

SS: But broadly speaking, the idea of billionaires paying more money, frankly I would like a wealth tax. I would like to go in and take their wealth. Not because we need it to fund things, but because we have a real problem not just with wealth inequality in this country but the political inequality that wealth inequality gives birth to. We have gone from a plutonomy to a plutocracy, and who better to critique the idea of billionaires getting taxed more than a hundred millionaire himself? Mitt romney ow here he goes

Mitt Romney: Well first of all, it's not a good idea to tell billionaires, "Don't come to America, don't start your business here." To tell the Steve Jobs and the Bill Gates and people like that, "This isn't the place to begin your business, go somewhere else." That's a bad idea. But number two, you're going to tax people not when they sell something but just when they own it and the value goes up. And what that means is that people are these multibillionaires, they can look and say I don't want to invest in the stock market, because as that goes up, I'm going to get taxed. So maybe I will instead invest in a ranch or in paintings or things that don't build jobs and create a stronger economy.

SS: Okay, two things. Let's work backwards. Investing in making money in the stock market does not create jobs. That does not create jobs.