The University of Virginia Center for Politics ran a special event, "The Shock of January 6th." Professor Larry Sabato hosted the event, which presented research into the thinking of Red and Blue political team voters. They agreed on one thing, that government caters to the wealthy. A highly influential subsection is private equity underwriters (PEU). Many PEU founders have been identified as policy making billionaires.
A former major business reporter contacted PEU Report in July 2011. They wrote:
I have seen so many people -- particularly those in their 50s - 70s -- taken apart by what has happened in their industry as greed has hollowed out the economy. These are people took pride in their jobs and held themselves to this invisible standard that we all just took for granted, but is being wiped out.
The Carlyle Group scares me more than anything I've ever seen on Wall Street. It seems to exist to corrupt politicians and it's hard to know who they even represent.
I watched a video interview of (David) Rubenstein and his arrogance is really beyond tolerance. He was going on about the debt ceiling problem and how there would need to be cuts in services and higher taxes. When the reporter asked him about tax on carried interest he turned really disdainful and said that this "only" amounted to $22 billion over some number of years and this was not serious money. Boy, nothing like everybody doing their small part to save the country from oblivion!
Politicians Red and Blue love PEU, which is why Mr. Rubenstein retains his preferred carried interest taxation to this day.
Voters Red and Blue dislike PEU, although Virginia voters just elected one Governor.
Update 1-11-22: Rewarding high dollar donors is part of the smelly game.
“Tsunis is likely the worst nominee that Biden has put forward and there’s some stiff competition because Biden has ignored the advice and the concerns of those with diplomatic experience, saying now is not the time to be doling out party favours to your donors.
“We need to have serious seasoned leadership in our embassies overseas. The whole nomination process reeks of backroom deals and favour trading but this is what Biden said he was going to clean up.”
Update 1-22-22: "Weak taxation of the wealthy combined with anemic regulation of campaign fundraising have handed America's billionaires outsized political influence to go along with their huge economic clout." U.S. billionaires dumped a staggering $1.2 billion into the 2020 elections—a 39-fold increase compared to 2010. "In the 2010 election cycle, billionaires gave $19 million to Republicans and $11 million to Democrats," ATF noted. "By the 2020 cycle, those respective figures were $656 million and $539 million." They expect a return on their political investment (ROI).
Update 5-30-22: Billionaire Elon Mush tweeted it is morally wrong and dumb” to use the word “billionaire” as a pejorative, adding, “If the reason for it is building products that make millions of people happy.” What if the reason for that billionaire is decades of preferred taxation? What if that billion in wealth arose from surprise medical billing?
