Billionaire Roosters Concerned Sun Won’t Rise Without Them


In wake of absurd billionaire tax dodging justification, Patriotic Millionaires rewrites NYT headline to more accurately reflect reality

For Immediate Release
Friday August, 30 2024
Patriotic Millionaires
Contact:Sam Quigley,,sam@patrioticmillionaires.org

WASHINGTON - Recent reporting from the New York Times highlighted efforts by Wall Street executives and Silicon Valley donors to convince Vice President Harris to drop taxation of the ultra-wealthy from her agenda. In response, Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement: “I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you that Wall Street billionaires and Silicon Valley tech bros are trying to convince a presidential candidate to abandon her commitment to tax them, and using their own alleged brilliance to justify it. I admire their chutzpah in claiming that taxing unrealized capital gains will stifle innovation!

Claiming that making a billionaire pay taxes on their second billion will reduce innovation is as absurd as the rooster claiming the sun won’t rise without his crowing. The billionaires I know were all highly motivated to earn their first billion. The only thing at stake here is the remarkably fragile egos of billionaires who are on the verge of realizing they might not be saving civilization for anyone, including themselves.

In light of their silliness, the Patriotic Millionaires have taken the opportunity to rewrite the recent NYT headline (both for our own amusement and to more accurately reflect reality):

Some (Silly/Misinformed) Donors Quietly(although not actually all that quietly; it was reported on the front page of the NYT after all)Push Harris to Drop(Modest Compared to What it Should Be)Tax on Ultra WealthyWhile Other (Much More Sensible and, yes, More Patriotic) Donors Loudly Push Billionaires to Drop Opposition to Common Sense.

The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.