Joe Biden's Expensive Plans For Musk, Bezos And Gates: State Of The Union To Address Billionaire Tax Avoidance

President Joe Biden is anticipated to propose tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations as a strategy to reduce the nation’s massive debt.

In his third State of the Union address since taking office in 2021, scheduled for Thursday, Biden plans to introduce a minimum tax rate of 25% for billionaires.

While such a proposal is unlikely to pass through Congress, with a slim majority for Democrats in the Senate and a similarly small majority for Republicans in the House of Representatives, Biden is hoping the proposal to increase the tax burden for the rich will strike a chord with lower income voters ahead of the November election.

Targeting The Mega-Rich

The richest men in the world, such as Tesla Inc.‘s Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft Corporation‘s Bill Gates, are unlikely to be quaking in fear over the proposal.

But, it puts the huge imbalance in the distribution of wealth and income under the microscope at an important time.

In 2021, Musk, in an apparent gesture of transparency, said he would be paying $11 billion in taxes for the year.

But, according to research by ProRepublica in 2021, he, along with Bezos, Gates, Berkshire Hathaway‘s Warren Buffett and many more, actually paid a smaller percentage tax rate than most low-income Americans.

“What America's richest pay in income taxes is minuscule compared with how much their fortunes have grown,” the report suggested.

Biden’s tax proposals will be among a number of measures the president is expected to announce over the coming days and weeks to address the U.S.’s record national debt, which reached more than $26 trillion at the end of 2023.

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‘Gains Going To The Top’

Robert Reich, a political economist who served under four Democratic presidents, most notably as Secretary of Labor in Bill Clinton‘s cabinet between 1993-1997, said that Biden must tell Americans the economy is not great.

Writing in The Guardian on Thursday, Reich said: “The president must tell them the truth: that most of the economic gains haven't been felt by average working people because the gains have been going to the top.”

Biden has attempted to increase taxes for the mega-rich several times under differing guises during his administration, but previous attempts have floundered, with opposition coming from within the Democratic Party.

The president’s tax proposals are likely to feature plans to increase the corporate tax rate from 15% to 21%.

Trump Pushback

Biden is likely to receive pushback from Donald Trump, who has emerged from this week’s Super Tuesday primaries positioned to become the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

Indeed, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he’ll be live trolling Biden’s speech.

He said: “I will correct, in rapid response, any and all inaccurate Statements, especially pertaining to the Border and his Weaponization of the DOJ, FBI, A.G.s, and District Attorneys, to go after his Political Opponent, ME.”

The State Of The Union speech will also likely feature the president’s accomplishments over the past three years and address concerns over the president’s age.

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