Ron Baron, a lifelong Democrat and billionaire investor, slammed 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax, saying it isn’t the right way to approach increasing government revenue.
“I don’t think Elizabeth Warren would be successful,” Baron said in an interview on “Squawk Box” aired on CNBC. He also thinks the Massachusetts senator would have trouble “getting through the policies that she’s proposing” if she was elected president.
“It’s pretty nuts.”
Warren’s plan, however farcical Baron thinks it is, would create a 2% tax for any family worth $50 million or more. The crazy rich households worth over $1 billion would get hit for 3%, and Baron thinks all that is doing is punishing success and killing the opportunity to create more jobs.
“Warren says if you’re successful because this country has allowed you to be successful … then you shouldn’t be as successful as you are,” he said. “You should have some of your money coming back, which just means you are taking jobs you would have created otherwise and give them away.”
Baron thinks a better idea would be a value-added tax, like the one being proposed by longshot Democrat Andrew Yang. A VAT, which is used in many European countries, would place a tax on products throughout each stage of the production process.
Baron admits that “it’s not my job to figure out what policy should be,” but he thinks any policy should encourage investment and “make it as fair and equitable in all business as possible.”
Warren has centered her political platform around breaking up big business and attacking the rich. Some Democrats on Wall Street have even threatened to not vote, or switch allegiance to incumbent President Donald Trump.
Leon Cooperman, founder of Omega Advisors and a billionaire (of course), has also been a loud critic of Warren’s attack on the rich.
“What is wrong with billionaires? You can become a billionaire by developing products and services that people will pay for,” Cooperman said in a Politico interview this week.
He had another hot take on Warren recently, saying “the market drops 25%” if she was elected in 2020.
