Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am going to spend a few minutes discussing the three words on this chart next to me: buy, borrow, and die. These three little words are allowing billionaires across America to legally get away with paying little or nothing in taxes for years and years on end. Here is how it works: A billionaire buys and holds assets, like works of art, more houses than they can possibly live in, stocks and bonds, you name it. They increase in value untaxed. The billionaire then borrows against these assets to support a lavish lifestyle, and they can borrow at a fraction of the consumer rate due to the enormous holdings of these valuable assets. That loan is untaxed. The billionaire's assets appreciate at a higher rate than the interest on the loan--that is not hard to do. So the billionaire can, essentially, do all of this until they die, and then their kids can start all over again. So let's now contrast buy, borrow, and die with the tax system in America for firefighters and nurses. Nurses and firefighters, for example, living in Philomath, OR, are required to pay taxes out of every paycheck. Working people don't get to play by these billionaire rules. They don't get to call up an army of high-priced lawyers and accountants every time they don't feel like paying their taxes. Right now, the average billionaire can wriggle their way into a low 8 percent tax rate while a nurse or a firefighter making $45,000 is paying a 22 percent tax on their wages.…”