POLITICUSUSA
The United States is finally starting to beat back the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 60% of Americans have received at least one vaccination shot and businesses across the country are starting to reopen.
In the way of that success is anti-vaxxers and the right-wing media members that urge them one. Tucker Carlson has certainly done his part to make his viewers falsely question the safety of vaccines.
When he was coming into office, Joe Biden said that his goal was for the US to average 1 million vaccines a day. A month into office, the country is shattering that goal and the average is up to 1.6 million shots a day.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an all hands on deck response from many business owners. Among the most prominent CEO’s looking to help was Bill Gates.
Thanks to the Conservative push to minimize the effect of the pandemic, Gates became a frequent target for Fox News. Gates appeared on Ari Melber‘s MSNBC show on Wednesday and responded to the frequent criticism.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, tech billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates said the United States’ coronavirus response is a “communications exercise” and the U.S. “doesn’t get a very high grade.”
In a recent interview with CNN, billionaire Leon Cooperman choked up, visibly upset as he talked about the future he envisioned for his vast fortune and the havoc he imagines a wealth tax, like those proposed by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, would wreak on his plans. He characterizes her proposal as “socially and morally bankrupt” and complains, echoing Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, that Warren has been engaging in the “vilification” of billionaires.
Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax proposal has certainly sparked debates not just about basic questions of fairness, of morality, but also about the economic effectiveness and very meaning of taxation.
The debate raises the question of what it means to invest in America.
A lot of energy has gone into railing against the tax policy proposals forwarded by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. In the most general terms, they both push hard for raising taxes on the extremely wealthy, the wealthiest of the wealthiest, who have been able to avail themselves of the opportunities this nation affords to accumulate vast fortunes.