Patriotic Millionaires Condemn Trump’s Plan to Gut Healthcare to Benefit the Wealthy

Former managing director at BlackRock and Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires Morris Pearl has released a statement in response to Donald Trump’s “abhorrent plan” to gut Obamacare for the benefit of wealthy Americans, saying,

“Gutting the ACA funding would only further add to our already egregious levels of economic inequality.”

According to Pearl,

President Trump did not campaign on a promise to get rid of people’s healthcare in order to give yet another tax cut to millionaires. Rather, he campaigned on a promise to fix the system and better the lives of everyday Americans. He needs to keep that promise and stop promoting the idea of repealing the Affordable Care Act and the ACA funding through taxes. The ACA taxes – capital gains, dividends, and interest – target the wealthiest amongst us. The tax code already taxes their income at much lower rates than wages; gutting the ACA funding would only further add to our already egregious levels of economic inequality. Wealthy Americans do not need yet another tax cut, we need a funded government to sustain a growing economy. That’s what will truly benefit all Americans.

Addressing Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy, Pearl said in a separate statement,

In an economy that is 70% consumer driven, the last thing we need to do to grow and sustain our economy is give millionaires yet another tax cut. The exhausted policies of “trickle-down economics” have failed spectacularly. President Trump needs to rethink his goals – rather than offer these faulty tax cuts to our nation’s wealthiest, he should instead commit to a $15 minimum wage. Business owners and investors need consumers with more disposable income. President Trump should work to improve the lives and wallets of the lower and middle class because that is how we all prosper.

We are supposed to believe that the tone of Trump’s joint address to Congress was positive and conciliatory, but it was full of lies and cynicism. But as fact-checker Daniel Dale put it, the speech equalled “New Trump language, same Trump content, and a lot of question marks.”

Pearl is right. Others, like Bernie Sanders, who pointed out the last night “I didn’t hear Trump mention the words “income and wealth inequality,” and Washington Governor Jay Inslee who called Obamacare repeal “a piggy bank to give tax-cuts to the wealthy,” have also pointed to the inherent unfairness of Trump’s approach.

As Pearl says, what Trump wants to do won’t benefit all Americans and it will only worsen the inequality he promised to eliminate by championing working-class Americans.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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