Day 2 of Donald Trump's criminal trial,
and he didn't quite manage to get through the day
without resting his eyes yet again.
Those in the courtroom reporting that he periodically leaned back
in his chair,
closing his eyes only to shift his weight moments later,
adding he is difficult to say whether he fell asleep
or is resting his eyes,
or maybe just silently praying.
This is possibly the most punishing ordeal for Trump to
just sit down and shut up in a room where
he has no control for like 8 hours a day,
four days a week, A trial that will last for
possibly two months.
This is also time when Trump is not on the
campaign trail while his opponent is out campaigning.
President Biden is doing a three day swing in Pennsylvania,
a crucial swing state where he is hammering home his
economic message.
People like Donald Trump learned very different lessons.
He learned the best way to get rich is inherited.
Not a bad way, I'm not.
He learned that paying taxes of something people who work
for a living did.
Not him. I guess that's how you look at the
world when you're on Park Ave.
of Mar a Lago. When I look at the economy,
I don't see it through the eyes of Mar a
Lago.
I see it through the eyes of Scranton.
And that's not hyperbole. That's a fact.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is a Democrat of Massachusetts who serves
on the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight,
and she joins me now.
You know, Senator, we've we've been doing this series on
my podcast about the sort of records of the two
men because it's the first time since
1892 when they both have records.
And I think one place where the record is just
probably clearer than almost any other
is on taxes is on who gets tax cuts and
and and who that affects and who benefits and who
doesn't.
Yep. So look at it this way,
right? Donald Trump actually had only two accomplishments in his
four years,
and one was the extremist Supreme Court that overturned Roe
versus Wade,
and the other was more than $2 trillion
in tax cuts, mostly soaked up by millionaires,
billionaires and giant corporations. Here's Joe Biden out there fighting
to make sure that we get access to abortion and
other reproductive rights.
But on taxes? Watch the difference.
Joe Biden actually got through
a 15% minimum corporate tax
on billionaire corporations. And let me just remind everybody what
that is.
Remember how Amazon couple of years back reported $11 billion
in audited financials on their taxes?
On their profits and how much did they pay in
federal income taxes?
Nothing. And So what this bill,
what this law is about,
is it says for those companies that make more than
a billion dollars in reported taxes,
they got to pay in reported profits,
they got to pay a minimum of
15% taxes. And I want to just say one more
thing.
That was the first tax increase on these big corporations
in more than 30 years
and it was used to fund
the biggest climate package in the history of the world.
So one of the things that is is interesting to
me is so you've got a record here,
right? There's the the the funding of the the American
rescue plan and and the inflation reduction Act
and tax consequences. You've got the the the big Trump
tax cuts.
But there's a huge prospective issue,
which is 2025, right. So I'm not sure people are
keyed into this.
But the the, the 2025,
like a big chunk of the Trump tax cuts expire
that mostly benefit the people at the top.
And there's basically it's going to,
we're going to go one of two routes depending on
who has control.
Yeah, you come to the fork in the road,
take it, because here's where this goes.
Donald Trump has said in rooms full of rich people,
just get him back in there and he is going
to make sure that taxes are cut for the millionaires,
the billionaires and the giant corporations.
Joe Biden is headed in a very different direction.
He says he is going to raise taxes on the
billionaires and he's going to increase the minimum tax on
the billionaire corporations
and that he's going to use that money to invest
back in America.
And that is a huge difference between them.
If I can, there's one more contrast between the two
and that is tax cheats.
You know, the people who make a lot of money
and the law is perfectly clear that they are supposed
to pay,
but they cheat on their taxes.
One of the bones of contention over the last couple
of years has been that Joe Biden and the Democrats
have actually funded the IRS so they can go after
those millionaires and billionaires that cheat on their taxes.
And the consequence of that is to actually make them
start paying.
That's something that President Biden wants to make long term.
That's something that the Republicans and Donald Trump want to
get rid of.
So it's partly about what the law says you have
to pay,
and it's partly about who's going after the cheaters.
And Donald Trump and the Republicans who are saying cheating
on your taxes if you're really,
really rich is fine with them.
Yeah. And in case anyone thought that you were making
up the promise from Donald Trump play he was he
said this to in a huge high dollar fundraiser for
very, very wealthy people. Here's what he had to say
on taxes.
You know all people that have a lot of money.
I know 20 of you and you're rich as hell.
We're going to give you tax cuts.
We're going to pay you off our debt.
We're going to do all of the things.
We're going to do all the things.
We're going to give you tax cuts.
And again just to go back to the distributional.
Could we show that chart again?
Because I think it does actually.
It's really important for people to understand like
those that's what it looked like,
the distributional effects of those Trump tax cuts and on
just on this point on
2025. Because I think I just want to zoom in
on this a second.
This is really important. As we all understand,
they expire on their own unless affirmatively extended,
right? So the the, the kind of
the default is on the side of them going away,
which does create enormous incentive for people who are very
wealthy and want to see a tax cut to try
to get Donald Trump elected because it really will make
an enormous amount of difference in a lot of people's
bottom line.
Billions and billions of dollars are on the line here,
you know, or another way to say that is taxes
are going to happen next year.
It is going to be a huge,
there's going to be a tax bill one way or
another,
right? But because of this expiration,
right, if the Republicans get to control the game,
then the answer is it's going to be
a payday for the people who are already rich.
And and remember what that means.
Everybody else has to pick up the slack.
So that's for everybody else who's going to actually have
to pay for all those roads and bridges that we
need.
It's everybody else who's going to have to pay to
make sure that the military is still paid.
It's everybody else who will have to pay because somebody
like Jeff Bezos is paying taxes at a lower rate
than a Boston public school teacher.
That's the kind of thing that's on the line.
And what Joe Biden is saying is
give him a chance. And what he's going to do
is he's going to raise taxes for those at the
very top,
reinvest that in America. And he's going to make sure
that the IRS has enough money to go after tax
cheats.
So that just because they're rich and just because they
can hire a bunch of lawyers doesn't mean they don't
have to pay their taxes.
They got to pay like everyone else.
Yeah, that that point about the next year in the
tax bill is such an important one.
It's a forcing mechanism. It's happening.
It's a question of who controls that.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you so much for your time.
Appreciate it. Thank you.