‘Good’ or ‘Bad’: Americans debate billionaires and taxes

Did you ever wonder what Americans think of the top 1,000,000th of 1% America’s 1000 billionaires? I’m Dr Frank Luntz, host of America speaks here on straight arrow news, and I asked a nationwide panel of average, everyday Americans, to give me their honest evaluations of the wealthiest Americans. But there’s a twist. What was intended to be a conversation about wealth and the economy ended up being a debate about a single individual and his current role in government. For when I said the word billionaire, my panel immediately heard and started to critique a very special, specific billionaire, and it wasn’t Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. So let’s listen in I don’t remember a time in American politics when there was more of a focus on people’s income in particular income inequality and the role of billionaires when it comes to politics, business and society. So please tell the American people from the American people. When you hear the word billionaire, you think, what Pierce? I’ll start with you.

I think, lucky you. I’m good for you that you’re a billionaire who doesn’t want to be. However, I think you can also do a better job of stepping up in doing your part in society and making things better for all of us.

Danielle, what do you think I think of Elon Musk and the cybertrucks?

Is that a good thing or bad thing? Bad. OBI, what do you think

I think billionaires are narcissists.

Donna, you’re up. I think of three words when I think of a billionaire, entrepreneurial, hard working and innovative

Hunter. Your reaction in a sentence to a billionaire,

innovative with selfish tendencies.

Joseph,

I think with the few exceptions that that made it because of inheritance, I think that billionaires have earned the opportunity to become a billionaire. I think they’ve worked hard for it, and they deserve it. The Arrow when

I hear billionaires, I think brilliant minds, and I love to see them do more for the world, since they have the funds to do so. Tanya,

I would agree with that last comment, brilliant but need to do more.

Steven.

Billionaires have every right to become billionaires. They don’t have a right in a democracy to use that wealth to steer things to benefit themselves at the expense of others.

Nancy job creators, and as long as they came by it honestly more power to them. Chris,

was it Spider Man, they say with great power comes great responsibility. I think they’re very you know, they should be proud of themselves, but I do think that they should be responsible, because all of the world is watching them, and I think they there has to be some guard rails on how much influence they can have in certain parts of society.

Jordan, I think that they’re inherently selfish, morally and socially bankrupt and completely removed from the plight of the average American blue collar worker, and they need to be nowhere near government.

Michelle,

I agree with a lot of what was said about the innovation, and they do have to be very brilliant to be able to make that much money. But I do think I agree with Chris that this has to be responsibility with that much money.

Rebecca, you bring up Elon Musk, is he a positive or a negative when it comes to his role in government right now,

I would say negative

because

I don’t think he should have a role in government.

Nancy Elon Musk, positive or negative? Positive.

I don’t know any taxpayer who wants to pay more in taxes and doesn’t accountability. And if he could do that, he’s in the position to do it. I am 100% with him.

Joseph is Elon Musk a positive or negative train?

Repositive? Why? Because he’s not necessarily playing the role of a billionaire, and for what he’s doing for government, he’s playing the role of somebody that’s generations ahead in terms of of how smart he is in the brain that he’s got, brilliant mind that he’s got. So that’s my reason. Yeah,

and. Your reaction to Elon Musk,

I don’t particularly like him. Um, I I’m a fan of SpaceX. I’m not quite a fan of Tesla. Um, I’m not sure what the doge is actually going to do.

Michelle Elon Musk, positive or negative?

Well, first off, he’s not taking a salary. How many people are going to do that, all this work for free? Second, he’s uncovered billions of dollars that have been wasted in our government. I’m not against anybody that’s going to do that. For me. I don’t care if they’re a billionaire, I don’t care if they’re some a bum on the street, if they’re showing all the waste in the government. Good for him.

Donna, your reaction to Elon Musk, extremely

positive. He’s, he’s a brilliant, brilliant man, and I want the best and the brightest working with Trump. And so I, yeah, I’m all for Elon. He’s, he’s an entrepreneurial he he has a mind that sees things differently, and I love the fact that he’s not governmental. And so he’s going to come in with a different approach.

Chris, your reaction to Elon, I’m

all for they were very transparent about what he was going to do before they brought him in, and it wasn’t lip service. He’s getting it done. He’s someone who’s proven to be uber successful in the business world. Can only be beneficial when you know, kind of determining the in its name, the efficiency of the government and

OB your opinion of Elon.

Elon is like a bull in the china shop right now. He’s just running rough, shot through everything, and it’s just chaotic. I just don’t really like what he’s doing right now to people, because he’s laying off people, and he’s just, I don’t know, I don’t know what’s next, like tomorrow, he could do something else.

Let’s put this discussion in perspective. The polling on billionaires in general and the related issue of income inequality is very telling. Among Democrats. It is often ranked the number two or number three national concern behind affordability and about even with immigration. Among Republicans. However, income inequality doesn’t even crack the list of Top 10 issues they care about. So when someone criticizes billionaires in general, or Elon Musk specifically, you can probably tell whom they voted for and what they think about capitalism. Let’s listen in again. So the Democratic Party has been talking about Republicans supporting tax cuts for billionaires at the expense of working class voters. Is that argument working for you? Does that argument have is it impactful? Is it convincing anybody? No,

because he just put tax he’s just what part of his tax plan is the tax the sports, billionaire sports owners, team owners. So no, it’s just one of theirs. Stupid, yeah, stupid, democratic talking points that they tug out every two and four years to try to scare the crap out of people. Anybody with a brain knows that that’s not true,

that and Social Security and all that, yeah, they drive that out all the time. It’s like, it’s so old. It’s ridiculous. ELI

your reaction to the Democratic focusing on billionaires,

they never cared about George Soros, and it’s politicized now.

And why does George Soros matter

when he was funding things in the same lane how Elon is now on the right. And it’s a double standard push against when the Republican Party

does it. Yes, okay,

Stephen, your reaction to the Democratic effort to tie Republicans to billionaires?

I think it’s a reasonable argument. There’s you didn’t ask me about Elon. He’s very destructive, and he’s he’s creating another wedge. There’s a difference between identifying quote, unquote waste and shutting down entire departments of government. They’re two unrelated things. They should be managed separately. I’ve seen very little evidence that he’s actually done what he tweets that he’s done. It’s to me, it’s a it’s a goal. It’s just something shiny that gets floated on Fox News and gets people excited. I think five years from now, 10 years from now, there’s every single person on this call is going to be their mind will be boggled and what, what actually happened as a result of some of these actions, and how it’s hurt us and hurt the country?

Okay? I’m curious. Nancy. You agree with Stephen there? Not

at all, not at all. I think it’s been very transparent. And if whole departments are you know, what about these buildings that none of the government employees were in? They were rat infested. There were people that were squatting in them. We’re paying for that. So if that whole department can be wiped out, wipe it out. It’s obviously not necessary. These people haven’t come into work. It’s not important to them. Why should be important to me? I want to save the money. No reason why we need to spend money on abandoned buildings. And you know, how many departments that do nothing? Are

billionaires in general? Are they good for the economy? Are they bad? Are they good for American society, or is it bad? Are we blessed to have so many, or are we cursed to have so many? Eli, what’s your reaction to billionaires?

Good for the economy?

Because, all right,

capitalism as a system has done more to lift people out of poverty than anything known to mankind. Billionaires are the best of us and the best job creators.

I completely disagree. Donna

billionaires, as long as they have earned their money, they didn’t embezzle it. They did steal it. They earned it the hard way. I’m I’ve never been offered a job by a poor person. I’m all I’m all for billionaires. The more, the more the better, the more they the more they employ, the better our economy. I’m all for billionaires. Everybody, every everybody should aspire to be one, which ones of them earned it the hard way.

Musk,

if you come up with, if you come up with with an idea like a like Elon Musk, and you make that kind of money, more power to you.

It was sometimes the billionaires that are like Bernie Madoff, and they come up with a brilliant idea like Ponzi schemes and the Ford people. That’s my skepticism. Well,

I said, if you, if you stole it, if you embezzled it, that that’s not different, right? That’s different. That’s different. Bernie Madoff did not employ anybody to make, to make his money. He he embezzled it from people. Elon Musk is actually making a product in employing people and is contributing to our society.

Well, let’s take it away from Elon Musk for a second, right? Because that’s what Frank said, billionaires. Let’s just look at it. At the fact that billionaires are 1% you have most of well, we have 99 other percent in this country. Most of the people who voted are not billionaires, are not even millionaires. So you have literally 1% of the of the population, hoarding wealth, hoarding resources, hoarding money, and then doling it out in little, small, teeny, snack sized pieces. It’s, it’s, they’re not benevolent. They’re they’re not good for society, and they’re not these, like all altruistic people who are just so beneficial. No, they were wanted to be beneficial. They would actually be stop exploiting the American worker.

People do not have a right to wealth. You have to earn it. You do not have a right to have a $30 allow or job. You have to earn that job, you have to go to school, you have to get a trade, you have to do whatever you have to do. You have a you don’t have a right to any of that. Do you know how

many people go to school? That’s the problem with with billionaires. Do you know how many people go to school? And I can, I can? I actually know, personally, I maybe about 100 200 people who have degrees, who have earned it, who are very intelligent, some of some of them have lower degrees, like at the end of the day, there are those people, those billionaires. They’re gatekeepers, right? And they’re very particular about who they let in to certain rooms and certain circles. And I think that you know, if you want to, you know, look at them and with rose colored glasses, that’s fine, but let’s not pretend that these are these, you know, just wonderful, benevolent, fairy godfather, mother. People who really care about society, they don’t. They really don’t. They look at what they’re doing now. They’re making tax cuts. That’s what, that’s what he’s there for and emboldening and enriching his companies.

I have, I have a lot of respect for people who take risks, whether it’s Bezos, whether it’s Zuckerberg, any of the billionaires who take risks and create jobs and and the reward for them is they’re quite rich, and I think that’s what capitalism is, and, and every single one of us on this call has the opportunity to do that, and we shouldn’t want that taken away for

some reason. And we, we’ve demonized success in the United States. If you’re successful, you’re you must be a bad person. I

mean, I think you can look you can look at many billionaires by name, and know that they have been philanthropic, that they have done good things. You look at the Walton family, you look at Bezos, you look at I’m sorry, the Facebook guy, um, they’ve all done good things for society. Now, in some instances, it may not be something I personally agree with, but they have still tried to uplift society in the in the best way possible.

The billionaires don’t owe us anything. They owe us, like I said, comes power. You know, they owe us reasonable people and not not interfering where they don’t belong in politics and things, but for the most part, you know, I heard a lot of comments about they don’t pay their fair share. They do pay their fair share. What? What would you like them to pay? They pay over, like, 27% taxes, like, what do you want them to pay? Just because they make a billion dollars, it should be 50% that’s not fair. I mean, they pay Elon Musk this year will pay significantly more in taxes than everybody on this call in our lifetime. So So I just, I just don’t understand what you want from these people.

Okay, and that’s going to be the way that we end this conversation, what should policy in Washington? You can address taxes, you can address regulation, whatever you want to address. How should Congress and the president deal with those people who are billionaires in society? Chris, I’ll start with you. I’m going to ask everyone to answer this question

just very briefly with what I just said, I think there should be, you know, a standardized tax rate. The it, regardless of what you make, you should pay that rate once you’re in that in that level. And as far as interfering in politics, I think there should be strict caps on the amount of funding you can give towards certain parties or

candidates.

Steven, what would you do with billionaires in terms of public policy,

the amount of public policy

in terms of what Washington should be doing? How should it be regulated or taxed, or anything?

I believe in a graduated income tax. I think, I think the current political climate, the government, the current government, is looking to reduce taxes at a time that they shouldn’t be doing that, and they’re talking about cutting deficits. And, you know, the last trump tax cut was unwarranted and created a good chunk of the deficit we have now, and it’s only going to get worse this time around

the error what should be the government policy towards billionaires?

Um,

I’m pro billionaire. So however it is, I think, um, keep it as it is. To be honest, I’m a full time business owner. So everything that billionaires have, like, you know, I aspire to be that. So, like Chris said, they don’t owe us anything, to be completely honest. Just do for the world. And you know,

Tanya, what should be government policy towards billionaires?

I think we should just have a flat tax, no loopholes

Pierce

I’m fair with keeping the tax rate the same way or even raising it. However, if they do get tax cuts like as expected, I would expect them to also do what they did years ago when they got those tax cuts and put that back into giving employees bonuses, investing into the United States, investing into localized United States, products, things like that. So I think if the government is going to give tax cuts, those companies and billionaires need to give back to the people that work for them. Joseph,

I think we should get rid of the income tax altogether. I think that the best approach, and it pertains to billionaires and it pertains to somebody making 12,000 is you’re going to buy what you can afford, and it’s a proportional tax based on what you you can afford. So to me, that’s the fairest way to take the approach for revenue coming into the government. So

it’s national sales tax, yes, sir Nancy, flat

tax. And embrace them. Embrace the bills, because you know what they they do give back. And if I was ever lucky enough to become a billionaire, I don’t think anybody should put demands on my money. Tell me what I should be doing, what I can’t do, what I what I have to give back. That’s a personal decision. You give what, what you believe in. I don’t think anybody should make demands on that. They were hard. If they were hard workers, they deserve every dollar they have. Donna,

nothing. I’m a free market capitalist. I think millionaires and billionaires should be. You. Left to do what they do to generate jobs and to be innovative and to be entrepreneurial. And I’m pretty much for a flat tax. The more you make, the more you pay. Jordan,

I’ll keep this brief Frank. I think that it’s incredibly delusional to think that billionaires worked hard, all of them to get where they are without having many people support them. The government needs to hold them financially accountable for the for all of the people that supported them to get to that billionaire status and giving back to them. And that means taxing them more than everyone else not the same. We are not the same, and none of us, I think we’d be. We’d be ridiculous to even think that we’re anywhere near the same. As a billionaire, they make more. They should pay a lot more in taxes.

And that is what’s so great about these focus groups. I want to this is a conversation that is going to get even more heated, even more intense, as we move into March and April and whether or not we’re going to have a budget, we will see whether or not we’re going to have tax cuts. Nobody knows at this point, but this debate is so essential, and I’m really glad that we just had it with America. See you all. Thank you very much. I appreciate your participation. There is an important lesson in this discussion, even with attempts by some politicians to stoke class envy, not many people in this country begrudge the massive economic success of others, provided they give back to society. The discussion doesn’t end here, but that’s all the time we have for this week’s installment. So on behalf of the people here at America speaks, I’m Dr. Frank Luntz, have a great week. You.