Americans must demand substantive political campaigns from leaders dedicated to protecting the rights and interests of American citizens.
Alas, Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ smoke-and-mirrors campaign will shipwreck on substance. After all, not even her economic advisor can persuade financial commentators in the establishment media to take her policies seriously.
In a clip posted to the social media platform X on Wednesday, Harris economic advisor Bharat Ramamurti dismissed what he called “funny” objections to the vice president’s tyrannical tax policy, prompting a series of objections from Becky Quick and Joe Kernen, co-hosts of CNBC’s morning pre-market news program “Squawk Box,” which left the Harris advisor silent and visibly humiliated.
The exchange began when Quick declared that Harris’ plan for taxing unrealized capital gains “just doesn’t seem fair in any sense of the word.”
According to the Cato Institute, Harris’ plan would impose “a new minimum tax of 25 percent on traditional income and unrealized capital gains for taxpayers with more than $100 million in total wealth.”
That income threshold exists to dull the senses of less affluent Americans who imagine themselves immune to the tax’s effects.
Furthermore, a tax on unrealized capital gains confiscates not actual wealth but projected wealth based on an asset’s appreciated value. And that involves serious constitutional pitfalls.
“Levying a tax on someone’s projected future income before they have full claim to it themselves also raises deeper questions about individual property rights, financial privacy, and due process,” per Cato.
Nonetheless, Ramamurti found the objections to Harris’ plan amusing.
Would a Kamala Harris presidency crush America’s economy?
“I think that this reaction to unrealized gains is a little funny given that I bet that the majority of people watching right now are already paying a tax on unrealized gains. It’s called a property tax,” he said.
That drew a sharp reaction from Kernen.
“Property tax,” the co-host said in a tone of disgust and disbelief.
Then, Quick correctly described a property tax as a “use tax.” In other words, property owners pay taxes to support local schools.
Still, Ramamurti tried to conflate the two taxes. But the co-hosts would not allow it.
“It’s not the same,” Kernen said.
Ramamurti continued gaslighting viewers about the tax’s purpose. Again, however, Quick corrected him.
“But it’s not a use tax for the people who are actually using the services,” she said.
“It’s probably unconstitutional,” Kernen noted.
“It’s not income,” Quick added, as if to reinforce her co-host’s objection.
“And it’s never gonna happen, probably,” Kernen said.
Meanwhile, Ramamurti sat in humiliated silence for the clip’s final 18 seconds.
CNBC: “Taxing UNREALIZED gains just doesn’t seem fair in any sense…”
Harris economic advisor Bharat Ramamurti: “This reaction to unrealized gains is a little funny.”
(Kamala’s 25% minimum tax on unrealized capital gains is just one of the trillions in tax hikes she supports) pic.twitter.com/jnGNK23ST0
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 28, 2024
The entire exchange should remind voters that Harris’ campaign has advanced very few substantive proposals. And in the ideas they have advanced, they have shown a brazen lack of originality, not to mention a disposition toward hitherto-catastrophic Communist-style policies.
Furthermore, Harris campaign operatives will speak to the press, but Harris herself will not. That alone should disqualify her from holding high office.
In the end, of course, we must pray and work to ensure that she never has a chance to implement the handful of terrible policies she has announced, including the tyrannical tax on unrealized capital gains.
