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It adds insult to injury that a billionaire real estate mogul made EXACTLY this argument when selling his tax policy and business conduct (I’m just being a good businessman, and I’ll fix the rigged system by getting rid of loopholes!), then turned around and got rid of special deductions for normal folks and created a massive special interest handout for real estate moguls.


To the surprise of absolutely nobody.


Apparently to the surprise of many! Some people really are terminally gullible.


How can you tell if a rich/powerful person is lying?

Rule of thumb: Their mouth is moving.


Rule of thumb: people don't get to be rich and powerful by being decent and honest.


This particular example inherited his fathers business, which was valuable enough that a half-share was sufficient to move him onto the Forbes 400 list.

Although his father also trained him not to be decent or honest.


got rid of special deductions for normal folks

I assume you're talking about the SALT deduction? The one that mostly benefits the highest income earners?

Interesting how when people personally benefit from a tax break it's "entirely justified", but when someone else does it's a "massive special interest handout".


A two earner household with a cop and a nurse benefited from SALT.

The average beneficiary of opportunity zones is generationally wealthy. A pair of tech workers pulling down 7 figures a year are stupidly wealthy and still would probably not have enough capital to be the primary beneficiary of an opportunity fund.

I’m not going to defend the salt deduction because I’m not a fan of it for the reasons you mention, but comparing SALT to opportunity zones is genuinely delusional.

Pitting the lower middle class against the upper middle class over a modestly regressive tax break while folks who haven’t worked in three generations pay a 0% tax rate on the fruits of others’ labor.


Generationally wealthy seems like a statement that needs some data there.

These investments can be as simple as opening a store. Youre putting up a straw-bogeyman that doesn’t actually exist.


Citation sorely needed. What’s the name of that opportunity fund?


I hope you're not implying that my argument is wrong just because Donald Trump once said the same thing disingenuously.




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