Fox & Friends worries that a wealth tax would cause billionaires to have to sell an island
Fox News hosts sound the alarm about billionaires not having liquidity
Published
Citation
From the November 13, 2019, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Another finance billionaire calling out Elizabeth Warren over her wealth tax proposal. In an interview, Charles Schwab says “It's sort of wrong-directed in many ways -- I came from really nothing and had plenty of incentive to create what we have created."
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): And he's certainly not the only one who feels this way. Just days ago, J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon accused the Democratic hopeful of vilifying successful people.
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Yeah, that was a great feature. Meanwhile, Fox Business correspondent Susan Li weighs in. So Susan, the people you know, they feel the same way. I was surprised that so many rich people were almost kind of quiet when they are attacked. Not this time.
SUSAN LI (FOX BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT): Not this time. Well, I mean, if you listen to Elizabeth Warren and her proposals, I mean, they are stock market negative. A lot of people think that if she is elected, which people put a small chance to for 2020, you know, the stock market would fall about 25%. I think that's the consensus.
DOOCY: Is that all?
LI: I know, right? It's a consensus among a lot of hedge fund titans, like Paul Tudor Jones, Leon Cooperman, and the like. However, on the converse of that, if President Trump was re-elected you would see 15% bump, they say, in the stock market, which are already at record levels, mind you.
DOOCY: But isn't this really class warfare? It's -- there are a lot more people who aren't billionaires.
LI: Right. That is true. But if you think about it, you know, I would say that given that the stock market records and the strong economy that we've seen over the last two years or so, I think the middle class has benefited from it.
DOOCY: But they've got billions of dollars, Susan, they can afford it. That's what she would say.
LI: They can afford it, and yeah that's what she would say. And, you know, they say we don't mind paying higher taxes. You heard Bill Gates there last week saying, OK, I'm willing to pay $20 billion in taxes. That's fine. But when it gets $100 billion -- and that's probably most of his wealth. That's when the math and calculations change.
KILMEADE: It was pointed out to me and you know this much better. A lot of these 700 billionaires that we have aren't liquid. So they have it in assets.
LI: Right.
KILMEADE: So, what are we doing? I have to sell an island, in order to?
LI: Or maybe it's offshore already.