Vivek Ramaswamy Supports Massive Tax?

Social media has buzzed with GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s apparent support of a massive inheritance tax.

Inheritance taxes, referred to as ‘death taxes,’ are taxes you pay when you receive money or property from the estate of a deceased man or woman.

“Unlike the federal estate tax, the beneficiary of the property is responsible for paying the tax, not the estate,” TurboTax writes.

“As of 2023, only six states impose an inheritance tax. And even if you live in one of those states, many beneficiaries are exempt from paying it.”

In Ramaswamy’s Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence, he proposes the idea of a 59% minimum inheritance tax.

Ramaswamy draws the number from suggestions proposed by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.

Piketty, an avowed socialist, authored Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021.

“Piketty argues that the time has come to support an inclusive and expansive conception of socialism as a counterweight against the hypercapitalism that defines our current economic ideology,” the book’s Amazon description reads.

Saez co-authored The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay, which advocates a “form of capitalist reformism similar to that of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren,” according to World Socialist Web Site.

“If anything, I’d take the figure Piketty and Saez arrive at as a minimum. We shouldn’t allow people to become billionaires just by having rich parents,” Ramaswamy wrote.

2024 Republicans on taxes: In his book, GOP prez candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he favors a 59% inheritance tax rate at a minimum: “We shouldn’t allow people to become billionaires just by having rich parents”

Cites progressive economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez pic.twitter.com/e7QswyxA0s

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) August 22, 2023

In other words, it appears Ramaswamy supports stealing wealth you’ve earned from the fruits of your labor that you wish to pass down to your children.

“Vivek Ramaswamy wants to impose a massive death tax on every American, cites avowed socialist Thomas Piketty to make the case for government stealing the fruits of your life’s work. You don’t want this guy anywhere near your Cabinet,” journalist Jordan Schachtel writes.

Vivek Ramaswamy wants to impose a massive death tax on every American, cites avowed socialist Thomas Piketty to make the case for government stealing the fruits of your life's work.

You don't want this guy anywhere near your Cabinet. https://t.co/dwwcrvHC8i pic.twitter.com/87Q1CtoogS

— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) August 21, 2023

Notice that Vivek describes the 59% death tax as a "minimum" for a good policy.

— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) August 21, 2023

“Socialist nonsense is not thinking outside the box,” Schachtel responded to a critical reply.

“It would destroy the main driver for human innovation. Fewer policies more destructive than a death tax,” Schachtel writes.

Yes, it would destroy the main driver for human innovation. Fewer policies more destructive than a death tax. https://t.co/yGquOMCUTf

— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) August 21, 2023

Law & Liberty highlighted this section of Ramaswamy’s book in its review.

Third, to confront multigenerational wealth, Ramaswamy embraces inheritance taxes as a way to “save meritocracy from degenerating into aristocracy.” Ramaswamy flirts with a suggestion by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez to set the optimal inheritance tax rate in the United States at 59%. Lest you hope, as I did, that he might eventually walk that number back, he doubles down: “If anything, I’d take the figure Piketty and Saez arrive at as a minimum. We shouldn’t allow people to become billionaires just by having rich parents.”

To which I ask, why not? His answer: A very high inheritance tax is “a way of redistributing duty.” Those who become rich “owe it to everyone else to preserve meritocracy so others have the chance to do the same.” Two points here. First, their success should be proof that the system is, in fact, working. If they can make money through merit, others can, too. Second, people have moral duties apart from those that should be enforced by the state. Americans shouldn’t eat, smoke, and drink as much as they do. But few Americans want the government to restrict our consumption of these things. Similarly, the question isn’t whether those who make money should give generously to others but whether justice requires the state to appropriate people’s holdings involuntarily for the sake of meritocracy. Someone can have the moral duty to give without the state having the legal obligation to make him do it.

In this video, Ramaswamy says he has “inherently-Libertarian instincts…I’m skeptical of the government…I think the government mostly lies.”

WATCH:

We’re surging. The knives are out. “WEF.” “Soros.” “Masks.” Here’s the TRUTH. Stay skeptical. Keep the questions coming & I’ll keep answering. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/eOjKTRndZu

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 19, 2023

If Ramaswamy has Libertarian instincts, proposing a 59% inheritance tax, where he cites progressive economists, is a complete 180-degree turn.

This writer’s opinion: I think he’s full of it.

Nobody with Libertarian principles would flirt with the idea of such taxation.

I thought people were calling Vivek Ramaswamy an undercover libertarian running as a Republican and giving him a platform to lie to us.

It's like people are purposely pushing authoritarians on libertarians. https://t.co/VhL1mgXKUu

— Doni 🤓🏴🏴‍☠️ (@DoniTheDon_) August 21, 2023

American radio host Michael Smerconish confronted Ramaswamy about the 59% minimum inheritance tax.

Ramaswamy called it a “thought experiment.”

“It is unimplementable in the current U.S. system,” he said.

When asked if he would implement such a tax, Ramaswamy said he “would not in that narrow context.”

“I believe that if we could all have a low to nonexistent flat tax rate over the course of our lives, but trade that off to say that each generation starts at the same place, I would absolutely take that trade in an instant,” he said.

WATCH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMfCCdQQewk

Are you buying it?

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