Republican Says Rich People Should Get More Votes Than Everyone Else

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Venture capitalist Tom Perkins thinks only taxpayers should get to vote, and rich people should get more votes than everyone else.

Video:

During a speaking engagement at the Commonwealth Club, CNN Money reported,

“The Tom Perkins system is: You don’t get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes,” Perkins said.

“But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How’s that?”

The audience at the Commonwealth Club reacted with laughter. But Perkins offered no immediate indication that he was joking. Asked offstage if the proposal was serious, Perkins said: “I intended to be outrageous, and it was.”

Perkins is terrified that rich may have to pay more taxes, “The fear is wealth tax, higher taxes, higher death taxes — just more taxes until there is no more 1%. And that that will creep down to the 5% and then the 10%.”

The horror is almost unspeakable. Can you imagine the top ten percent paying more taxes, so that the country can afford things infrastructure repair, better schools, and helping the poor?

The idea that millionaires should get one million votes is already something that is being put into practice by wealthy conservatives. Citizens United has given wealthy billionaires the opportunity to buy votes through anonymous super PACs, but the plan has met with mixed results. Super PACs have been very effective at the state, and in some cases, local level. They have also been effective in congressional districts. However, they have had poor results in Senate races, and were an absolute failure during the 2012 presidential election.

Perkins’ comments echo the mentality that the American people are up against. Super rich Republican supporters think that they are entitled to more democracy than the rest of us. They believe that democracy is a commodity that they can buy. The right wing billionaires really do believe the job creator stuff.

They think their money makes them better people than the rest of us. Their hatred of President Obama, and the “unwashed masses” who have elected him twice is real. The Koch brothers, Perkins, and others consider themselves to be at war for the country.

Tom Perkins laid it all on the table. The super rich right thinks that government should be theirs, and they are doing everything in their power to steal democracy away from we the people.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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