While
making the case for her proposed wealth tax, Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said on Friday that
"bazillionaires" made their fortune by relying on workers who were
educated in public schools as well as public roads and infrastructure.
Warren
said her two-percent wealth tax on every family's "accumulated assets"
above $50 million would lead to "structural change" in America.
"I'm
not doing this because I'm cranky with rich people. Some bazillionaires
say, 'you know, look, I worked hard. I worked hard.' You really do want
to say, 'unlike anybody else?' 'I had a great idea. I stayed up late at
night. I made this happen.' And I say, 'good for you.' But here's the
deal. If you built a great fortune in America, I guarantee you built it
at least in part using workers all of us helped pay to educate," Warren
said during a campaign event in Iowa on Friday.
"You
built it at least in part getting your goods to market on roads and
bridges all of us helped pay to build. And you built it at least in part
protected by police and firefighters -- all of us helped pay their
salaries, yeah. And all we're saying is if you make it big, not just
big, really big, really big, the top one tenth of one percent big --
pitch in two cents so everybody else gets a chance to make it in this
country, that's it," she added.
Warren's
comments about her wealth tax echo former President Barack Obama's "you
didn't build that" speech during the 2012 presidential campaign.
"If
you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There
was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create
this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to
thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges--if you've got a
business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen," he
said. "The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research
created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the
Internet."
During
the campaign event, Warren said her wealth tax would pay for "universal
childcare for every baby in this country" under five years of age as
well as universal pre-K for every 3- and 4-year-olds.
She also estimated
that the wealth tax would cover salary increases for childcare workers
in America but she did not specify how much of a raise she is proposing.
https://pjmedia.com/trending/warren-says-the-rich-must-pay-her-wealth-tax-because-they-benefitted-from-public-schools-and-infrastructure/
