Michael Linden

Thinks we shouldn't give more tax breaks to billionaires.

Formerly @ombpress @Groundwork @RooseveltInst @amprog @senatebudget @HELPCmteDems. Personal account.

[Team Ossoff @TeamOssoff]

Ossoff: If you're late with your rent, the machinery of late fees and eviction is very efficient. But when you tell your landlord about the black mold in your daughter's bedroom, nobody comes for four months. And then when you got to take her to the hospital for her asthma attack, you get a $3,000 bill for the ambulance.

Life was already hard enough before Donald Trump lied us into war, before his tariffs made everything more expensive, and before he doubled your health insurance premiums and slashed Medicaid. It costs more today than ever before in American history to fill up your truck, to stock your fridge, to power your home, to go to the doctor. Meanwhile, and you've seen it, the president and the first family line their pockets to the tune of billions of dollars.

[Bobby Kogan @BBKogan]

It cannot be overstated how much red tape Republicans added to the process of getting Medicaid and SNAP.

Millions of people who literally qualify for these programs are being kicked off them, despite qualifying, because of all the red tape Grassley voted to add to them.

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

@ChrisMcGTrader My point is actually not that he didn’t move, but that he said he was going to, and then didn’t.

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

This is one reason why we should be skeptical of analyses that are based on rich people "considering" "threatening" "planning" to move based on changes in tax policy.

[Adam Carlson @admcrlsn]

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in

[Jake Sherman @JakeSherman]

needed video to believe he actually said this 9 days before an election.

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

@ItaiGrinberg @davidsgamage @joshrauh As for Zucman, I do think these kinds of critiques would be better for him to amplify.

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

Ok, 1 more post on the Ruah-Jaros CA Billionaire Wealth Tax analysis and then I'm done. I promise.

Here's a visualization of how much their aggressive assumptions matter to their finding. This first chart takes their infinite horizon and discount rates at face value.

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

@ItaiGrinberg @davidsgamage @joshrauh Those 7 make up about 30% of billionaire wealth, but there is simply no way they make up 30% of billionaire income taxes. Brin and Page, for example, account for roughly 28% of wealth, but about 5% of income taxes.

[Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 @PollTracker2024]

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro pledges to codify Roe into law if he's given a trifecta next month.

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

I think people might be underestimating just how unpopular this guy is going to be after two MORE years of this.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Trump: "While oil prices are temporarily high ... the United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars"

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

@DACDAC5DAC @Tyler_Menzer The thing is, David, if you look at the data, rich people did not leave at higher rates after the tax than before and they are not leaving at higher rates than lower income people.

If people leaving is a problem, it’s not because of the millionaire tax.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This Forbes investigation is a must-read.

Donald Trump pulled in roughly $1.4 billion from crypto in 2025, plus more than $200 million from real estate, and faced a projected tax bill north of $500 million. So his company donated the "development rights" to his Jupiter, Florida golf course to a land trust, argued the course was a natural habitat worth protecting, and kept right on running the club. Forbes estimates the write-off could land around $825 million.

He has done this at least five times since 2005. New York's attorney general alleged two of those appraisals were inflated. In Doral, he claimed a deduction of up to $323 million, more than double what he paid for the entire resort.

A month after the Jupiter deal, he sued the IRS. The settlement his own Justice Department signed bars claims against him over matters that "could be pending," language that appears broad enough to cover this year's taxes. A federal judge found the case was brought to manipulate the judicial process. And the man now running the IRS, who took the job as this deal was being assembled, has a home backing onto those same Jupiter fairways.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Nobody should be able to use the presidency to write his own tax bill.
https://t.co/0MzmPI2AE3

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

Is it really an “accusation” when we can all see it’s true with our own eyes?

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: Barack Obama forcefully criticized President Trump at a midterm rally, accusing him of historic “incompetence” in Washington. https://t.co/Oge53ANW1l

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

These really hammer it home. Under much more reasonable assumptions, even using their model, the tax comes out ahead.

That doesn't mean you have to support the tax or think it's a good idea. But Ruah-Jaros clearly put their thumb on the scale.

[Michael Linden @MichaelSLinden]

If that weren't enough, the infinite horizon is also doing a lot of work. Here is the same sensitivity analysis, but using a 50 year and then a 30 year window.