Anthony Russo talks millionaire tax hike proposal

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alabama's Morning News. I'm JT. So, what's going on with
our tax structure? What's Donald Trump want to do? Once
everybody's screaming about as far as billionaires need to pay
millions in taxes, and now the Republicans are discussing ways
to pay for the new policies, and the White House
aides talking about a proposal that would tax people making
more than a million bucks forty percent. Join us now

(00:22):
to talk about this. Anthony Russo, political analyst, Anthony, welcome
back in Thanks for being here.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
There's no problem. How you doing, I'm.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Doing great, boy, Depending on who you listen to. Well,
you know those billionaires, Joe Biden's eight percent. Oh, they
have to pay those billionaires? Eh, whore they kidding?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Man?

Speaker 1 (00:40):
And then I look at I dig a little deeper
into it, it's like, well, wait a minute, billionaires are
paying a lot of taxes. It's just different because realized
income versus investment income are two different entities, and it
gets tricky when there's that much money out there and
how much tax is being paid. So strip the layers
back for us and explain where we're at in reality

(01:03):
on taxes for people making big money, like that and
where we need to be or where they're thinking about going.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, you just you threw a whole bowl of suit there.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
I felt like, you know that one where they have
the old guy with like the staring face and the
like looking awkward and the numbers just flying by his head.
That's what I medical formulas. Whatever you just did just
made me really confused. But I think I can break
it down. Simple thing is, we always taxes. Always confused
people because like, oh, the riches increasing three percent or

(01:34):
five percent or whatever it is if they make over
a million, so that means the first million.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
It's all. It's a it's a marginal tax rate based
on where they are. So say somebody makes one point.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Again, this is if this actually passes, which I'll get
into in a second.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I don't think.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
I don't think this is something that is an idea
being floated does not mean that it's going to be
in it.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I would imagine there a lot of people are pushing
back on this idea, so anyway, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, absolutely, And I don't think it's idea of Trump.
It's just something that he's saying is on the table.
But it's say somebody makes one point two million dollars,
the tax rate is going would be going from thirty
seven percent to thirty nine point six percent, So two
point six percent increase. The two point six percent increase
is between what is just the two hundred and fifty

(02:20):
thousand dollars between a million and one point twenty five
million dollars, So that's that's the area that would get
the higher tax rate. Again, you listen to Larry Cudlow,
you listen to some of the House Republicans, you look
at them, listen to Mike Johnson.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
This is not something they're a fan of.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
This is just something they're willing to have a conversation on,
and the media is running with it, saying I thought Trump.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Wasn't going to raise taxes.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
The top one percent already pay forty five percent of
the taxes. They're looking at ways to mathematically counterbalance the
fact that Trump campaigned and is going to actually fulfill
the promises of no tax on tips, child tax credits,
fifteen percent tax decrease on American manufacturing training companies.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
There's going to be some tax loss, but we're forgetting
a lot of people are forgetting that. We've made some
dose cuts as well.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
I would rather just keep tax rates as they are
and forget about that five thousand dollars or decrease to
five thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
It was also floated, not confirmed.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
It's floated ideas to try to stimulate the economy.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Trump will not hurt his biggest.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Base and the most important base to what he believes
is economy Twice. He's already hurting them with tariffs for
short term game, short term pain, long term gain. He's
not going to double hurt them with taxes when they
make over a million dollars.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, and let's not forget about retiree soocial security here
that everybody keeps screaming about on the left that Donald
Trump's going to destroy and ruin social security. It couldn't
be further from the truth here. But let's go back
to what Joe Biden said the other night as he
made his return to Sleepy Ville in front of a
microphone and camera and said, look at him, man, eight percent,
that's all they pay. That's not reality either.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
No, it's not.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
For Again, the wealthy do have the best accounts, They
have the best ways of avoiding and evading parts of
taxes legally.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Trump famously said it on stage with Hillary Clinton.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
How do I know that the tax code is broken
because I've used it legally. So there are some there
are some loopholes. But even with said loopholes, eight percent
is ridiculous. But even with said loopholes, that's the top
one percent is still paying forty five percent of the taxes,
if not probably getting to the point where it's more.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
So that whole statement.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
It's just it shows the confusion and the ability for
people on the left to say whatever they want and
not get punished for it, like the stuff that we
would get punished for in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one
saying hey, I don't think.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
The vaccine is as effective as we thought. Nope, your banned,
You're gone.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Whereas they can share completely false information, completely false information.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
And completely get away with it. And this is the former.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
President of the United States, just make up numbers and
saying things that are just blatantly false.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Come on, man, come on, here's the thing completely in
the same arena of taxes, but in a different realm
of how to get it done. The fair tax or
the goods and services tax. All right, and this gets
discussed all the time. It's never going to come to be.
I can't imagine or else it would have because there's
too many lobbyists, or's somebody in Congress doesn't want to

(05:26):
do it. I'm not sure, but I've been told by
every economist I talk to that if we go to
a goods and services tax, if that's what you want
to call it, or a fair tax, where we get
rid of income tax all right completely, and this would
include everybody with a fair tax that spends a dollar
in this country to participate and contribute to the tax

(05:46):
structure of the United States. So if you make a purchase,
which people have to do to live, you get a
little bit of that purchases and tax that goes to
the government, replacing the income tax. This would do two things.
One increase the amount of money the government would have
to work with, and two reduce the amount of money
people pay currently in the taxes. Why don't we ever

(06:10):
move forward with a different structure completely in this country?

Speaker 3 (06:14):
So I so that's a very libertarian structure. I've always
liked it.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
I've liked it.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
On its face. I think there's it sounds easy. It
sounds like, why don't we just do this? It's the
what it is is the band aid rip, the massive
shift in tax code and what has to happen from
Wednesday we're doing it this way to Thursday, we're doing
it that way. And that is something that just like
everybody's afraid of changing their regular life the government, this

(06:42):
is not This is not as simple as it would
sound like, Hey, we're ending this, we're starting this.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Look, I get I get that, I get that, But
in principle, just like Donald Trump, in principle is changing
the way the bureaucrats and deep state and Washington runs
to a different way of doing business and the way
we live with our government. Okay, yeah, we're upsetting the tables.
The pharisees didn't like it either, but you know what,

(07:07):
it was the right thing to do. And there's a
lot going on with our tax dollars that a lot
of people aren't happy about and a lot of people
don't know about. So if we're going to make it
fair and we can in the simplest form create more
revenue for our government and less you know, burden on
the taxpayers, then my gosh, find a way to implement

(07:28):
it over a twelve month period and slowly walk into
the water instead of jumping off the high dive.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Absolutely, and I think that that's honestly he's he's been
a wrecking ball to this point. I think we're forgetting
the fact that it's it's mid April right now. First
it is first higher ency. So I think that this
is something like you said, because on top of it,
it's not something you can do in executive order on
So he's going to have to outline the numbers to everyone,

(07:55):
and of course you know.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
The pushback he's going to get from the left.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
It's going to have to be so cut and dry
on how the system will work to switch and how
much savings because again you say it, you're like, wait
a second, so we pay less.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Than taxes, but the government has more in taxes. That
sounds like a Ponzie crypto scheme of some kind. So
how does it actually lay out and how does it work.
You're going to have to prove.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
That to the to the Democrats, and also I think
even some establishment Republicans before it passes. Once it passes,
they can start moving forward. But I think there's a
lot to that. I think it's something that we might
see in the next couple of years.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Well, there's lots smarter economists than you and I that
could line up behind Elon and go all right, here's
my team of economists and tax you know, attorneys explaining
how this will work and how we can implement it
and how long it will take. I mean, let's just
get the ball rolling, all right. I'm running for governor.
I got to get this thing moving forward. I can't
take it anything, all right, buddy, always going to catch

(08:52):
up with the Anthony Russo, thanks for being with me,