Study: Most Billionaires Are Right Wing Republicans
One of the common misperceptions in American politics is that most billionaires are progressive. Billionaires like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and George Soros are very visible and do advocate policies that will benefit all Americans. In addition, their philanthropy reflects their progressive political philosophy.
Unfortunately, appearances can be deceiving. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of American billionaires are severely conservative and their charitable donations largely benefits their own socioeconomic class. The reality is that right wing billionaires deliberately keep a low profile and avoid the public eye. It’s a strategy that works for them — and against the best interests of most Americans.
A fascinating study that was reported in The Guardian on October 31, 2018, exposes the reality that most American billionaires are extreme right wingers:
“Our new, systematic study of the 100 wealthiest Americans indicates that Buffett, Gates, Bloomberg et al are not at all typical. Most of the wealthiest US billionaires — who are much less visible and less reported on — more closely resemble Charles Koch. They are extremely conservative on economic issues. Obsessed with cutting taxes, especially estate taxes — which apply only to the wealthiest Americans. Opposed to government regulation of the environment or big banks. Unenthusiastic about government programs to help with jobs, incomes, healthcare, or retirement pensions — programs supported by large majorities of Americans. Tempted to cut deficits and shrink government by cutting or privatizing guaranteed social security benefits.
The answer is simple: billionaires who favor unpopular, ultraconservative economic policies, and work actively to advance them (that is, most politically active billionaires) stay almost entirely silent about those issues in public. This is a deliberate choice. Billionaires have plenty of media access, but most of them choose not to say anything at all about the policy issues of the day. They deliberately pursue a strategy of what we call “stealth politics”.
Most of the wealthiest US billionaires have made substantial financial contributions — amounting to hundreds of thousands of reported dollars annually, in addition to any undisclosed “dark money” contributions — to conservative Republican candidates and officials who favor the very unpopular step of cutting rather than expanding social security benefits. Yet, over the 10-year period we have studied, 97% of the wealthiest billionaires have said nothing at all about social security policy.
Benjamin I Page, Jason Seawright, and Matthew J Lacombe are (respectively) Fulcher professor of decision making, professor of political science, and PhD candidate in political science at Northwestern University. They are co-authors of Billionaires and Stealth Politics, forthcoming in 2018 with the University of Chicago Press.”
Our country’s tax policies definitely reflect the influence of our right wing billionaire class.
A 2021 report from White House economists estimated that the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in America paid an average of just 8.2 percent of their income — including income from their wealth that goes largely untaxed — in Federal individual income taxes between 2010 and 2018. That’s a lower rate than many ordinary Americans pay.
According to the GAO, the average effective tax rates — the percentage of income paid after tax breaks — among profitable large corporations fell from 16% in 2014 to 9% in 2018.
A study from the University of California-Berkely concluded that in 2018, the average effective tax rate paid by the richest 400 families in the country was 23 percent, a full percentage point lower than the 24.2 percent rate paid by the bottom half of American households.
In 1980, by contrast, the 400 richest had an effective tax rate of 47 percent. In 1960, that rate was as high as 56 percent. The effective tax rate paid by the bottom 50 percent, by contrast, has changed little over time.
In the absence of the failed George W. Bush and Trump tax cuts, we would have a balanced budget. We don’t have a spending problem — we have a revenue problem. “If Congress wants to decrease deficits, it should look first toward reversing tax cuts that largely benefited the wealthy, which were responsible for the United States’ current fiscal outlook.” The Center For American Progress, March 27, 2023.
Apologists for the GOP billionaire class contend that the billionaires make up for their light tax burden with generous philanthropy. This talking point is as erroneous as the one about billionaires being progressive. The reality is that billionaires largely contribute to causes that mainly benefit themselves and others like them.
“In the US, which statistics show to be the most philanthropic of nations, barely a fifth of the money donated by big givers goes to the poor. A lot goes to the arts, sports teams and other cultural pursuits, and half goes to education and healthcare. At first glance that seems to fit the popular profile of “giving to good causes”. But dig down a little.
The biggest donations in education in 2019 went to the elite universities and schools that the rich themselves had attended.
A lot of elite philanthropy is about elite causes. Rather than making the world a better place, it largely reinforces the world as it is. Philanthropy very often favors the rich — and no one holds philanthropists to account for it.” The Guardian, September 8, 2020.
We are in a fight for freedom against America’s powerful and cosseted billionaire class. “For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people’s property, other people’s money, other people’s labor — other people’s lives….Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, July 27 1936.
There are more of us than them. If we contribute our time, our money and votes we can break the power of the elite billionaire class and win back our freedom. Liberty, democracy and freedom are on the ballot in 2024. This could be the last free election in American history if Trump and his willing accomplices in the billionaire class win the election.
The GOP is now an authoritarian party that doesn’t believe in free elections. Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore gave away the game when he said: “Capitalism is a lot more important than democracy. I’m not even a big believer in democracy.” They want to create a system like the one in Hungary where the rules are rigged so that the GOP always wins.
It’s America or the MAGA Republicans in 2024. Choose wisely. Now let’s get it done!