During his speech at the 2022 annual Code Conference from Vox Media in Los Angeles, Mark Cuban criticized Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democrat, calling her “everything wrong with politics.”
During the Wednesday broadcast of “Squawk on the Street” on CNBC, a clip from the conference was shown in which billionaire and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban ridiculed one of the most prominent leaders in the Democratic Party.
Cuban stated no problem paying higher taxes during an interview with Kara Swisher (a tech journalist). Cuban added that he wrote a blog twenty years ago saying that the most patriotic thing you can do after military service is to pay your taxes because that allows everybody to live and prosper. Cuban said this in response to Swisher’s question.
After that, he continued by criticizing progressives, emphasizing Warren in particular, who he claimed vilified or antagonized the wealthy. But, yeah, the concept of merely soaking “the rich, billionaire tears that fill that cup” — “screw you, Elizabeth Warren, you’re everything wrong with politics,” he proclaimed.
During an interview with Fox Business from the previous year, Cuban had previously made statements along these lines. When questioned about this, he stated at the time that he didn’t have a problem paying more taxes, whether it’s business or personal.”
Although he is not always pleased with how taxpayer money is spent, he emphasized that this is an entirely separate issue.
He claims he is not pleased with how the government spends it consistently. He added that he believes the idea of taxing unrealized gains would be a terrible disaster. He explained that a tax on a gain that has not been realized and may never be realized is a horrible idea.
This stems from a proposal requiring wealthy households to remit taxes on unrealized capital gains from stocks, bonds, and private companies.
According to current law, households are taxed on assets when sold (or realized). A gain on an investment held for less than one year is subject to ordinary income tax rates, whereas a gain on an asset held for more than one year is subject to a top rate of 23.8%. In addition, inherited assets receive a “step-up” on a tax basis, eliminating capital gain taxes.
Households with net wealth over $100 million must pay a minimum effective tax rate of 20 percent on income, including unrealized capital gains. If the effective tax rate fell below 20 percent, households would owe additional taxes to reach 20 percent. Therefore, households would owe capital gains taxes even if the underlying asset had not been sold, and the payment would be treated as a prepayment of future taxes.
During the same interview, he criticized Warren for being someone who “demonizes” wealthy and financially successful individuals.
Cuban stated that if he is being sincere, he doesn’t think Elizabeth Warren is entirely aware of what she’s talking about when she discusses this—adding that he doesn’t feel that they understand the implications of taxing unrealized gains. He reiterated that she likes to demonize wealthy people, and that’s fine; it’s a great political move for her.