From the President – 7-26 – Weekly Update

WEALTH TAX LITERATURE: The revenue projection most frequently cited for Warren’s wealth tax, $2.75 trillion over a decade, comes from a pair of prominent Berkeley economists, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.  

 

But from practically the start, other experts have questioned whether that figure is too optimistic. The latest in that genre comes from a new paper from the Treasury Department’s Matthew Smith, Owen Zidar of Princeton and Eric Zwick of the University of Chicago, who argue in part that it’s tough to know just how much wealth is located at the top end and how it’s spread across different types of assets.  

 

The paper also suggests (using data from 2014) that a Warren-style wealth tax would maximize proceeds by taxing accumulated wealth of at least $11 million. (Warren instead would place a 2 percent tax on wealth above $50 million, with an additional 1 percent surcharge tacked on at $1 billion.)

 

It’s not exactly apples to apples, but even the $11 million threshold would have only raised $146 billion, the paper says — well short of the pace needed to get to $2.75 trillion over a decade.

 

  

WSJ ED BOARD: “The Bipartisan Spending Party”: “The rap on Washington is that it’s too partisan and accomplishes little.

 

We’ll take that if the alternative is this week’s budget deal that is a win for the political faction that really runs the place—the bipartisan spending party. … “President Trump appears inclined to accept the agreement, perhaps to avoid more drama ahead of the 2020 campaign.

 

The White House is now leaking that after he’s re-elected Mr. Trump will really get down to business on taming spending. Voters can be forgiven if they find this hard to credit.”

 

 Republicans want an election about socialism. They’re unlikely to get one. OPINION — If there was any doubt congressional Republicans want to make the 2020 election about something other than President Donald Trump, look no further than the House GOP’s campaign chairman. 

 

“Republicans will make 2020 race a choice between socialism and freedom, NRCC Chair Emmer says, w starring role for AOC & Squad as ‘Speaker in fact,’ & rest of Democrats as the ‘new Red Army,’” New York Times reporter Julie Hirschfeld Davis tweeted last week aboutNational Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer.  

 

That’s not a complete surprise, of course, since Republican candidates, officeholders and strategists have appeared intent for months to transform the 2020 elections from a referendum on Trump into a referendum on socialism

 

UNDERSTANDING GEN Z: How America’s Largest, Most Diverse, Best-Educated, and Most Financially Powerful Generation Will Shape the Future.  

 

Understanding Gen Z report – some interesting trends…including on American identity, support for capitalism, etc.  

 

Based on nearly 1,000 survey interviews with 18-21 year-olds, Morning Consult’s ‘Understanding Gen Z’ report digs into the values, habits, aspirations, politics, and concerns that are shaping Gen Z adults and the ways they differ from the generations that came before them.