As long as you can keep people beneath, you aren't at the bottom of the totem pole. That is is why poor white people wanted to keep blacks at the bottom.
He's about 7 months late when she made a similar statement back in Feb'21. And Senator Wyden has been working on this proposal for months if not years now. WSJ did an article about it, saying it would impact just a few hundred American (billionaires).
And? I don't think it's a coincidence that as less people lived off the land, as we mechanized and industrialized, we needed to come up with revenue sources for new public works and new social programs. You won't hear me argue against reform, as I think stacking generations of programs on top of new generations of program is inefficient.
property/wealth taxes at the federal level are unconstitutional that's why they are trying to claim that unrealized gains are income, even though we all know that is bullshit if your house appreciates by 30% (as determined by who? Zillow?), that isn't income if you don't sell it what if your baseball card collection in your attic goes up in value? should you now owe taxes on that appreciation? This is also a license to audit everyone's "stuff" to determine their wealth. The statists love this, but it will be a privacy nightmare.
They aren't going after your house or your baseball card collection. They are going after billionaires who used existing loopholes to avoid taxes. The financial system sure doesn’t think the paper wealth is bs. Banks are happy to lend out billions to many super-rich at extremely low interest based on their paper wealth. These super-rich lives off these borrowed billions while avoiding tax by not realizing their gain. When it comes time to transfer the wealth, the cost basis is reset at the time of the transfer, wiping out more taxes. Awesome loopholes.
Why would he be aware of it? Why would the president have the time or desire to serve as Australia’s procurement rep? Do you know how many arms transactions are done on a monthly basis between our allies, the defense department, and American arms manufacturers?? Obviously someone who made the decision to change things and pull the rug out from the French should have went at least to Sec Blinken or Kerry at a minimum, but that’s besides the point with Biden. I don’t know why this is something you believe is a controversy. Frankly it was alarming to me how much Trump and Kushner wanted to get their grubby hands on every damn Raytheon or Boeing deal.
At the same time France is a longstanding and crucial ally. Biden at the minimum should be informed that France was in a major deal with Australia and that our sub deal would destroy that. While any President can't know or get involved in everything this still seems like something the President should've known. As someone who claims diplomacy as one of his strengths this seems like a failure on Biden's part.
Then that's on the bureaucracy that manages these transactions. Again... do you know how many weapons deals just like this are done a month? I agree that if there was a particular deal that could have this type of blowback... YES it should have went up the chain to at least Blinken, or Kerry. It also sounds like from Kerry's statement that he might have been in the loop, and didn't make note of it to Biden. That's sort of a self admission of a failure on his part. I have a family member who works for Boeing. You would be shocked at who is buying what from them with the DOD overseeing the transactions on a daily basis. I would expect the president to be involved in that only at a very strategic level. I don't think this is the blunder you guys think or want it to be at least for Biden. It took a grand total of like a week to get back in good graces with Macron. Nobody is losing sleep at night thinking we are going to war with France. It reminds me of this, but maybe even more laughable given that we are talking about France here:
Why would we all be surprised? Joe does not even know what he had for lunch 5 minutes after he ate. His handlers keep him in the dark quite a bit.
Joe is probably taking it from pretty much all sides. Republicans obviously won’t agree he is doing a good job running the country and the more liberal faction of the Democratic party won’t either. The Democratic voters/coalition comes together to win elections but they seem hopelessly fractured internally.
it is the 'Biden Administration" and if Biden's underlings aren't doing a good job informing him then that still is ultimately on him. Few gave GW Bush a pass on decisions made at lower levels of the command structure such as battlefield decisions or how Katrina was handled. Biden himself likes to tout that the Buck stops with him. Understand all sorts of deals are made all the time. The deal with Australia isn't just a sale of subs. It is a strategic partnership in the South Pacific. France's opposition isn't only limited to losing a sub deal but the impression that they are being marginalized in an important strategic alliance. Note if this was just another arms sale you wouldn't have seen Biden, Johnson, and Morrison making such a big deal about it themselves.
