How Billionaires Got So Powerful

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The Citizens United

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcf_3N-OsbA

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CLUB FOR GROWTH FLOODS MIDTERMS WITH BILLIONAIRE CASH THREATENING OUR DEMOCRACY

Nearly 2/3 of Group’s Super PAC Funding This Cycle Comes from 3 Billionaires Investing Millions to Save Their Families Much More in Taxes

As of the end of July, just three billionaire households were responsible for almost two-thirds (64%)—or over $35 million—of the nearly $56 million raised this election cycle by Club for Growth Action (CGA), a super PAC dedicated to maintaining a U.S. tax code that benefits the rich and corporations. That’s a key finding in a report released today, “The Club for Growth Billionaires”, an analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) of the fundraising and spending profiles of the nation’s leading anti-tax-fairness super PAC (political action committee). 

Almost half (48%) of the group’s funding for this cycle’s midterm election campaign—or over $26 million—came from just one couple, industrialists Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein of Illinois, who together are worth $8 billion. The other two big givers were Wall Street investor Jeffrey Yass (net worth, $12 billion) of Pennsylvania, who donated $5.5 million; and Diane Hendricks of Wisconsin (net worth $12.6 billion), who along with her late husband became rich selling building supplies and donated $3.5 million. Net worth figures are from the Forbes billionaires list as of August 30, 2022 and the campaign contribution data is from July 31, 2022. 

The Club’s donors and political activities are a case study in the corrosive effect of wealth on our democracy, and the circular effect of billionaires using the wealth generated under our current tax system to sway elections so that they can secure policies that grow their wealth even more. 

The top three stated policy goals of Club for Growth, GCA’s sister organization, are “reducing income tax rates and repealing the [estate] tax,” “replacing the current tax code with a fair/flat tax,” and “the full repeal of ObamaCare,” all of which would make the tax code significantly less progressive and potentially save CGA’s billionaire contributors tens of millions in taxes. 

The report found CGA and its billionaire donors are so determined to install officeholders who will further rig the tax system in favor of the rich and powerful that in several instances this year they’ve outspent the candidates themselves. For example:

• CGA spent over $14 million, nearly 30% of its spending on the midterms through July, to make Rep. Ted Budd this year’s Republican Senate candidate in North Carolina. CAG spent more than two-and-half times the $5.5 million Budd spent on his own behalf. 
• In the Nevada and Arizona GOP Senate primaries this cycle, CGA’s spending of $3.2 million and $2.2 million, respectively, for winners Adam Laxalt and Blake Masters was nearly two thirds of the amount the candidates’ themselves spent during the same period.
• A relatively modest CGA investment of $1.7 million to help Eric Burlison win the GOP primary in his Missouri U.S. House district dwarfed by almost three-and-a-half times the less than $500,000 he contributed to the effort. 
• CGA spending topped that of the candidate in three other successful House primaries and in two failed Senate primaries lost to Trump-backed candidates. 

“Club for Growth laughingly claims it is fighting for ‘more jobs and higher wages for you,’ but its super PAC is actually engaged in a different fight altogether,” said Zachary Tashman of Americans for Tax Fairness, lead author of the report. “Club for Growth Action and its billionaire donors are really fighting for more loopholes and special breaks, which means lower and sometimes no taxes for them.”

“Billionaires know how to invest their money for the best return—and with Club for Growth acting as their political broker, they’ve found a great investment in politicians who will fight to protect special tax breaks for the rich,” said Frank Clemente, ATF’s executive director. “The problem is that the billionaires’ gain is a loss for everyone else, since billionaire tax dodging leaves too few resources to help working families afford healthcare, childcare and housing, and to invest in rebuilding infrastructure and combating climate change.” 

Billionaires funding CGA is nothing new: the report found that well over half (58%), or $117 million, of the nearly $200 million the super PAC has raised since 2010 has come from the ultra-rich. The Uihleins again topped the list, the source of $66 million or about a third of all the money raised by CGA in the past dozen years.

Unlike candidate committees and regular PACs, super PACs like CGA can raise unlimited contributions from each donor. In return, they are not supposed to coordinate their electoral efforts with official campaigns, but that rule is often flouted.

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Billionaires

https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/report-club-billionaires/?

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When Elon Musk closes on his deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, he will control one of the widest used communication platforms in the world. Billionaires, like Musk, are using their fortunes to buy power and influence―not just through media and communication outlets, but also through our political system.

In the 2020 election cycle, 661 billionaires pumped $1.2 billion into federal elections to elect candidates, most of them focused on maintaining our rigged economy that favors wealth over work. They contributed $1 out of every $10 spent.[1]

One way to limit billionaires’ influence in our elections is for them to pay their fair share in taxes. Then they’d have less to spend on corrupting our democracy.

Before Elon Musk buys Twitter, he should pay taxes on the hundreds of billions of dollars his wealth has grown since the pandemic began.

From March 18, 2020 to October 17, 2022, Elon Musk saw his wealth grow by $183 billion―a nearly 750% increase―making him the richest person in America, according to Forbes data.[2]

An expose last year by ProPublica based on IRS data revealed that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other top billionaires paid zero federal income tax in several recent years. It determined that the top 25 billionaires paid just a 3.4% tax rate between 2014 and 2018 when the growth in their wealth is counted as income.[3]

The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax, legislation proposed by President Biden and cosponsored by 45 members of the House of Representatives, would place a 20% tax on the annual wealth gains of anyone worth $100 million or more, with most of the revenue raised from billionaires. It will raise at least $360 billion over 10 years that can be used to lower costs for working families, address the climate crisis, and more.[4]

Thank you for fighting for a tax system and economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.

Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] “Billionaires are Spending 39 Times More on Federal Elections Since Citizens United Supreme Court Decision in 2010,” Americans for Tax Fairness, Jan. 21, 2022
[2] According to Forbes data analyzed by Americans for Tax Fairness, on March 18, 2020, Musk was worth $24.6 billion and on Oct. 17, 2022, he was worth $207.7 billion, an increase of $183 billion or 744%.
[3] “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax,” ProPublica, Jun. 8, 2021
[4] Americans for Tax Fairness, https://billionairestax.org/the-plans/

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America’s richest want to pay more taxes–but we won’t let them. We need a tax bracket and rate overhaul

Three years ago, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman published The Triumph of Injustice, which outlined, in stark terms, how the progressivity of America’s tax system has completely collapsed. 

https://fortune.com/2022/10/20/americas-richest-want-pay-taxes-tax-bracket-rate-overhaul-lord-dusseault/?

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Believe It or Not - the Richest Americans DO Pay Most of the Federal Income Tax

 

Thank God for the 1%. That much-maligned minority, the richest percent of Americans, pay 39.5% of all Federal Income Tax. That is one of the most eye-catching figures in a study released by the Tax Foundation earlier this month. To put that percentage in absolute figures: the richest percent of American taxpayers pay in $542.64 billion of a total take of Federal Income Tax of $1.37 trillion.

 

Use this visualization

As this data visualization clearly shows, the top 1% pay much more than taxpayers of any other income level.

 

• It is almost double as much as the next bracket of top incomes: those earning the 2% to 5% of the highest wages in America pay 20.5% of all Federal Income Tax. Or in absolute terms: $281.51 billion.
• It is also almost four times as much as those whose incomes range from the top 6% to 10%. They pay 10.9% of Federal Income Tax, or $149.97 billion.
• Those who earn between the top 10% to 25% of wages in America are a much larger group; yet their collective input into the Federal Income Tax is only half as much again as the previous band: 15.9% (i.e. $281.55 billion).
• Those with an income anywhere between the top 25% and 50% only pay 10.5% of all Federal Income Tax, no more than $143.95 billion.
• The entire bottom half of wage earners pays only 2.8% of its income in taxes into the federal coffers. In actual money terms: $37.74 billion. That is more than 14 times less than the top 1%, even though this group is 50 times as numerous.

These figures show the level of contribution to total income tax revenues by the various income levels. The Tax Foundation also provided figures for what that means for individual taxpayers in each group.

• For the richest 1%, the effective average tax rate is 27.2%, meaning that well over a quarter of their income goes into federal coffers.
• For the next group (up to 5%), the fiscal pressure is just below a quarter: 23.6%.
• Taxpayers with incomes in the top 10% part with just over one-fifth (21.3%) of their earnings.
• Those in the top 25% bracket contribute 17.8% of their annual income.
• Even those up to the 50th percentile on average still give 15.5% of their annual income to Uncle Sam.
• Because about 45% of American households make too little to pay any Federal Income Tax, the average percentage for the bottom half of incomes is dramatically lower – the average Federal Income tax level for this group is just 3.5%.

Nobody likes paying taxes, and all taxpayers agree that everyone who contributes to the national purse should have some say in how the government raises and spends its money. But in this debate, whose voice should be louder: that of the majority at the bottom of the income scale (who contribute the least) or of the minority of biggest contributors (who fork out the most)? Simply put, that question is the foundation of all politics in a capitalist democracy like ours.

Sources: Taxfoundation.org

 

 

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America’s richest want to pay more taxes–but we won’t let them. We need a tax bracket and rate overhaul

 

Solution is very simple. If that is the desire of the richest, simply don't take any deductions when you file taxes. Pay the going rate on the yearly income

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Maybe the fairest way to tax is using the system God laid out. Hard to beat His wisdom and the efficiency and fairness of His plan.   Didnt allow for the number of children, child tax credits, loopholes or the jealousy of those with less demanding the rich do more to take care of them

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Billionaire Donor's Advice to GOP: Ramp Up Lies About Democrats' Tax Policies to Win Senate

Leaked audio obtained this week by Politico revealed that billionaire casino magnate and GOP megadonor Steve Wynn recently offered Republicans a bit of messaging advice as they attempt to win back control of the Senate: Amplify the lies about Democratic tax policies.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/26/billionaire-donors-advice-gop-ramp-lies-about-democrats-tax-policies-win-senate

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Joe Manchin Gets Candid With Billionaire Donors in Leaked Audio

Sen. Joe Manchin reveals his thoughts on the filibuster in a leaked Zoom call with fundraisers.

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/17/deconstructed-manchin-candid-leaked-audio/

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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that a “shadow army” of IRS agents was coming for you.[1]

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), head of the Senate GOP campaign committee, said that IRS agents would “use deadly force” in their tax enforcement.[2]

And Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said: “After todays raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?”[3]

Now, we’ve learned where Republicans got their messaging guidance from: billionaire ex-casino mogul Steve Wynn, who's being sued by the U.S. Justice Department for secretly lobbying President Trump for favors for the Chinese government.[4]

According to the Washington Post and Politico, on a recent Republican big-money donor call, Wynn suggested Republicans start running “hard hitting” TV spots telling everyday people that the IRS is “coming after you if you’re a waiter, if you’re a bartender, if you’re anybody with a cash business.”[5]

Wynn, like many GOP members of Congress, are lying to the public claiming that the just-passed Inflation Reduction Act, will result in the IRS hiring 87,000 auditors to go after working people. In fact, any new auditors―more like 20,000―will be hired to go after billionaires like Steve Wynn and corporate tax cheats to make them pay what they owe.

In addition to providing fraudulent messaging guidance, Wynn and his wife have donated $5.7 million to Republican candidates and causes this election cycle. That includes $300,000 to Kevin McCarthy’s super PAC and $100,000 to a Herschel Walker super PAC, who is running to defeat Sen. Rafael Warnock in Georgia.[6]

Billionaires like Wynn prefer to operate in the shadows, controlling our democracy and rigging our economy.

[1] https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1556268919786278913
[2] https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/services/files/FE938C2F-152C-47FA-A200-16BFE5573837
[3] https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1556795448614060035
[4] “U.S. Accuses Steve Wynn of Lobbying Trump on Behalf of China,” New York Times, May 17, 2022
[5] “Leaked audio of a billionaire GOP donor hands Democrats a weapon,” Washington Post, Aug 25, 2022
[6] Federal Election Commission

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Are you familiar with Leonard Leo? He’s a conservative activist and the executive vice president of the Federalist Society. He’s also the mastermind behind Republicans stacking the U.S. Supreme Court (and lower courts) with right-wing extremists who recently overturned Roe v. Wade.[1]

Leo’s newest organization, the Marble Freedom Trust, recently received the largest political contribution in history—$1.6 BILLION from billionaire Barre Seid—totally tax-free.[2]

In March 2021, Seid donated an entire company to the Marble Freedom Trust, which Leo’s organization then turned around and sold without paying any taxes. This not only enriched the Marble Freedom Trust, but saved Seid as much as $400 million in capital gains taxes.[3]

Billionaire Barre Seid is no stranger to using his fortune to fund right-wing causes. In the past, Seid has funded climate denialism, business deregulation, fighting Medicaid expansion, and radicalizing higher education.[4]

Now he’s put $1.6 billion into the hands of the Federalist Society kingpin who secured the Supreme Court majority that overturned the right women had for the last 50 years to a legalized abortion. Now state legislatures will decide whether women have this right, and many are denying them.

Seid’s donation has already begun to flow to more anti-democracy causes. One of them is the fraudulently-named "Honest Elections Project," which is asking the Supreme Court to rule in its favor on a case that would make it much easier for state legislatures to gerrymander federal and state election districts and subvert the results of the 2024 presidential race.[5]

[1] “A conservative activist’s behind-the-scenes campaign to remake the nation’s courts,” Washington Post, May 21, 2019
[2] “An Unusual $1.6 Billion Donation Bolsters Conservatives,” New York Times, Aug 22, 2022
[3] “A $1.6 billion donation lays bare a broken campaign finance system,” Washington Post, Aug 28, 2022
[4] “How a Billionaire’s ‘Attack Philanthropy’ Secretly Funded Climate Denialism and Right-Wing Causes,” ProPublica, Sept 6, 2022
[5] “This conservative group helped push a disputed election theory,” National Public Radio, Aug. 12, 2022

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2 hours ago, phkrause said:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that a “shadow army” of IRS agents was coming for you.[1]

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), head of the Senate GOP campaign committee, said that IRS agents would “use deadly force” in their tax enforcement.[2]

And Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said: “After todays raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?”[3]

Now, we’ve learned where Republicans got their messaging guidance from: billionaire ex-casino mogul Steve Wynn, who's being sued by the U.S. Justice Department for secretly lobbying President Trump for favors for the Chinese government.[4]

According to the Washington Post and Politico, on a recent Republican big-money donor call, Wynn suggested Republicans start running “hard hitting” TV spots telling everyday people that the IRS is “coming after you if you’re a waiter, if you’re a bartender, if you’re anybody with a cash business.”[5]

Wynn, like many GOP members of Congress, are lying to the public claiming that the just-passed Inflation Reduction Act, will result in the IRS hiring 87,000 auditors to go after working people. In fact, any new auditors―more like 20,000―will be hired to go after billionaires like Steve Wynn and corporate tax cheats to make them pay what they owe.

In addition to providing fraudulent messaging guidance, Wynn and his wife have donated $5.7 million to Republican candidates and causes this election cycle. That includes $300,000 to Kevin McCarthy’s super PAC and $100,000 to a Herschel Walker super PAC, who is running to defeat Sen. Rafael Warnock in Georgia.[6]

Billionaires like Wynn prefer to operate in the shadows, controlling our democracy and rigging our economy.

[1] https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1556268919786278913
[2] https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/services/files/FE938C2F-152C-47FA-A200-16BFE5573837
[3] https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1556795448614060035
[4] “U.S. Accuses Steve Wynn of Lobbying Trump on Behalf of China,” New York Times, May 17, 2022
[5] “Leaked audio of a billionaire GOP donor hands Democrats a weapon,” Washington Post, Aug 25, 2022
[6] Federal Election Commission

Prior to my husband retiring we had a Total Compliance Audit. That type of audit was conducted at our home. All sorts of fun. My husband had his own small business.

This took 18 months, hefty lawyer fees, and a penalty of 5,000.00 Our attorney was a former IRS agent. After 18 months he advised to accept the 5,000.00 even tho it was obvious to all we had not cheated and the mistake that was made was to financial benefit of IRS.

Before this audit was over I asked the auditor why not go after those with a lot more money and opportunity to cheat. Not that they don't but those of the middle to upper class and small business owners are far easier to collect from.

For the wealthy it can take years without the certainity of a win.  Those in our economic level and small business cannot afford to fight the IRS like the wealthy can and does.

5,000.00 from a hundred taxpayers like my husband and myself is a lot easier to obtain and a lot faster return than the years it can take at times for the wealthy that can and is willing to fight them.

A retired IRS member of our chruch concurred. He was a field auditor and hated the thought of a very wealthy audit.

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Inflation Reduction Act will cost middle class $20B in new taxes: CBO

• Inflation Reduction Act will cost middle class $20B in new taxes: CBO

The Inflation Reduction Act sent to President Biden’s desk will end up forcing working-class Americans to pay billions of dollars in new taxes, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

An analysis by the CBO estimates those earning less than $400,000 — the group on which Biden promised not to raise taxes — will pay an estimated $20 billion more in taxes over the next decade as a result of the Democrat-pushed $740 billion package, which also sets aside $80 billion to hire 87,000 IRS agents.

The bill has yet to be scored in its entirety by the CBO — which typically gives each piece of legislation a price tag before it is voted on — but the agency scored the impact of the IRS expansion on middle-class taxpayers on Aug. 12 after a provision from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) sought to exempt those making under $400,000 from increased IRS scrutiny.

Crapo’s proposed amendment would have kept those taxpayers from being targeted by the new IRS hires, but his provision was shot down 51-50 in the bill passed by the Senate last week.

On Friday, the House approved the bill. Biden is expected to sign it in the coming days.

Sen. Crapo’s amendment would’ve kept middle-class taxpayers from being put in the IRS’s crosshairs.

Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/S

The CBO analysis confirms an earlier report from the Joint Committee on Taxation that found that throwing an extra $80 billion at the IRS to improve the agency’s collection of under-reported income will end up targeting small business owners to pay for the legislation.

The IRS is expected to bring in more than $180 billion from other, wealthier taxpayers.

Small business owners will find themselves in the crosshairs of the new wave of IRS auditors, tax experts said.

“Most small businesses are organized as pass-through entities — LLCs and S Corps,” James Lucier, managing director of Washington-based policy research firm Capital Alpha, told The Post. “Proponents of increased auditing specifically say they want to target pass-through entities, which inherently means targeting small business and small business owners.”

“The IRS will have to target small and medium businesses because they won’t fight back,” adds Joe Hinchman, executive vice president at National Taxpayers Union Foundation. “We’ve seen this play out before … the IRS says ‘We’re going after the rich’ but when you’re trying to raise that much money, the rich can only get you so far.” 

The White House has dismissed claims the bill will hurt lower- and middle-income Americans, instead noting estimates don’t take into account how much the bill will offset costs for average Americans like prescription drugs.

But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has acknowledged the new and improved IRS could ramp up collections from middle-class taxpayers. In a letter to the IRS commissioner last week, Yellen directed “any additional resources … shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels.”

The IRS will collect billions more from middle-class Americans.

Getty Images

In other words, Yellen conceded that middle-class taxpayers will face more audits and pay more taxes — but that they won’t be unfairly targeted.

“Anytime you get an IRS letter, it could take months or years to get it settled — we’re talking many thousands of dollars to address,” Daniel Bunn, executive vice president at the Tax Foundation, told The Post. “Large companies have constant reviews and lawyers going through everything … small business doesn’t have the resources to fight back in the same way.” 

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The Sports Stadium Scam | Robert Reich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLkyULxrWiE

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Oxfam Shows US Billionaires Almost a Third Richer Today Than When Covid Hit

"At a time when the ultrawealthy are amassing historic and dangerous levels of wealth, a federal wealth tax offers a vital and necessary tool for directly redressing extreme wealth inequality."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/wealth-inequality?

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Wealthy Executives Make Millions Trading Competitors’ Stock With Remarkable Timing

On Feb. 21, 2018, August Troendle, an Ohio billionaire, made a remarkably well-timed stock trade. He sold $1.1 million worth of shares of Syneos Health the day before a management shake-up caused the company’s stock to plunge 16%. It was the largest one-day drop that year for Syneos’ share price.

https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-irs-files-trading-competitors-stock?

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax?

How the Wealthy Save Billions in Taxes by Skirting a Century-Old Law

At first glance, July 24, 2015, seems to have been a brutal trading day for Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO. He dumped hundreds of stocks, losing at least $28 million.

https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-files-taxes-wash-sales-goldman-sachs?

Ten Ways Billionaires Avoid Taxes on an Epic Scale

Last June, drawing on the largest trove of confidential American tax data that’s ever been obtained, ProPublica launched a series of stories documenting the key ways the ultrawealthy avoid taxes, strategies that are largely unavailable to most taxpayers. To mark the first anniversary of the launch, we decided to assemble a quick summary of the techniques — all of which can generate tax savings on a massive scale — revealed in the series.

https://www.propublica.org/article/billionaires-tax-avoidance-techniques-irs-files?

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How the Ultrawealthy Use Private Foundations to Bank Millions in Tax Deductions While Giving the Public Little in Return

It’s a simple bargain: The rich get huge tax breaks by donating art, property and company shares to benefit the public. But some donors collect millions while offering little or no public access.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-private-nonprofits-ultrawealthy-tax-deductions-museums-foundation-art?

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How Warren Buffett Privately Traded in Stocks That Berkshire Hathaway Was Buying and Selling

Buffett has long said such trading would be a conflict of interest, and Berkshire policies prohibit it. But confidential records show that, on at least three occasions, he sold millions of dollars of shares in stocks that Berkshire was trading.

https://www.propublica.org/article/warren-buffett-privately-traded-stocks-berkshire-hathaway-ethics-irs?

How the Ultrawealthy Use Private Foundations to Bank Millions in Tax Deductions While Giving the Public Little in Return

It’s a simple bargain: The rich get huge tax breaks by donating art, property and company shares to benefit the public. But some donors collect millions while offering little or no public access.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-private-nonprofits-ultrawealthy-tax-deductions-museums-foundation-art?

Private Planes and Luxury Yachts Aren’t Just Toys for the Ultrawealthy. They’re Also Huge Tax Breaks.

What’s the only thing better than having your own Gulfstream jet? Why, getting to claim millions in tax deductions for it. All you have to do is make a case you’re using it for business, which turns out to be surprisingly easy.

https://www.propublica.org/article/private-jets-yachts-wealthy-tax-deductions-irs-files?

Wealthy Executives Make Millions Trading Competitors’ Stock With Remarkable Timing

Never-before-seen IRS records show that CEOs are sometimes making multimillion-dollar bets on the stocks of direct competitors and partners — and doing so with exquisite timing.

https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-irs-files-trading-competitors-stock?

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax?

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Warren Buffett’s company says a billionaire family offered bribes to inflate earnings at a truck stop chain

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway says the billionaire Haslam family tried to bribe at least 15 executives at the Pilot truck stop chain with millions of dollars to get them to inflate the company’s profits this year because that would force Berkshire to pay more for the Haslams’ remaining 20% stake in the company.

https://apnews.com/article/buffett-berkshire-hathaway-haslam-pilot-truck-stops-48d768eb679661ce806c52d81bf08140?

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It’s not just conservative Supreme Court justices who are scoring lucrative travel perks: In today’s featured story, The Lever reports that billionaire-funded, right-wing legal interests are routinely sending lower-court judges on all-expenses-paid trips around the country and overseas — trips they won’t get anywhere else.

Billionaires Are Bankrolling Judges’ Luxury Travel

By Andrew Perez

Illustration by The Lever

[View in browser]

In 2021 and 2022, two conservative, billionaire-funded legal interests sent more than 100 federal judges on 251 trips to conferences and seminars in cushy locations around the country and overseas, according to a Lever review of hundreds of federal financial disclosure forms. 

In all, George Mason University (GMU) and The Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers network, funded more than 40 percent of travel-related payments reported by federal judges in those years, far more than any other group. 

The staggering number of junkets indicate that, as conservative Supreme Court justices face scrutiny for failing to disclose private luxury travel supplied by billionaire donors, right-wing legal interests funded by the mega-wealthy are routinely feting lower-court judges and treating them to all-expenses-paid trips to far-flung locales. As with the gifts to Supreme Court justices, the trips effectively function as a reward system for judges who espouse and maintain hardline conservative legal views.

GMU — a Virginia-based public research university that’s home to the conservative Antonin Scalia Law School and its pro-business, anti-regulation Law and Economics program — paid for federal judges’ transportation, meals, or lodging at least 152 times from 2021-22. The Washington-based Federalist Society covered travel or food-related expenses on at least 99 occasions during the same time period. The judges are not required to disclose how much the excursions cost.

The Federalist Society and GMU are both closely tied to the conservative legal movement and billionaire donors who have a financial interest in how the federal judiciary interprets laws. Both institutions also accept corporate donations.

“The data is really compelling,” said Caroline Fredrickson, a distinguished visiting professor from practice at Georgetown Law. “It confirms what we all knew intuitively: The Federalist Society and George Mason have a deep reach into the federal judiciary, and are using it to ensure that a very particular point of view about legal analysis is conveyed to judges and is done in luxury accommodations, so that judges are much more likely to attend.”

The Lever reviewed electronically available financial disclosure forms filed by more than 1,300 federal judges in 2021 and 2022, and identified at least 595 instances of judges disclosing reimbursements for travel-related expenses. 

GMU and the Federalist Society were far and away the top sources of such payments, together accounting for 42 percent of all reimbursements listed by the federal judges. No other organizations came anywhere close to matching their generosity: The third most-common sources on the list — Notre Dame, Georgetown, and George Washington University — accounted for 13 reimbursements apiece.

The Federalist Society is co-chaired by former Donald Trump judicial adviser Leonard Leo, best known as the architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, and the organization receives significant funding from his dark money network. Last year, the Supreme Court that Leo helped build overturned decades of precedent and eliminated federal protections for abortion rights. 

Leo, the beneficiary of a historic $1.6 billion dark money donation in 2021, previously brokered a $20 million anonymous gift to rename GMU’s law school after the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. As The Lever and ProPublica have reported, that gift to GMU was apparently made by Barre Seid, a little-known Chicago industrialist who converted his electrical surge protector empire into funding for Leo’s unprecedented dark money operation. 

GMU has separately received tens of millions in donations from foundations affiliated with the billionaire oil and gas titan Charles Koch, a libertarian activist and longtime opponent of environmental regulations. That included a $10 million contribution in support of renaming the law school. Koch’s foundations have also supported the Federalist Society. 

“Right-wing efforts to legislate through our courts — led and bankrolled by conservative kingpin Leonard Leo — have seeped into all levels of the federal judiciary,” said Caroline Ciccone, president of the progressive watchdog group Accountable.US. “It’s no surprise that Leo’s Federalist Society and Scalia Law School are now key hubs for conservative judges to score free luxury trips and unusual perks, undermining judicial integrity and contributing to plummeting public trust in our courts.”

Spokespeople for Leo, Koch’s charitable foundation, GMU’s Antonin Scalia Law School, and the Federalist Society did not respond to The Lever’s requests for comment.

“Study Time”

The 49-year-old Law and Economics Center, which promotes a pro-business, anti-regulatory legal perspective, has been housed at GMU since 1986. As the center noted in an event agenda last year, its purpose is to pull together “timely, relevant, and unassailable research on public policy issues” and share it with “those who are directly shaping our country’s public policy discussions.” 

“With research divisions devoted to top-quality legal policy analysis and educational outreach to judges, attorneys general, and other policymakers, the [Law and Economics Center] is uniquely equipped to positively affect national policy outcomes,” the center wrote.

A 2022 review of rulings by judges who participated in an early version of this Law and Economics program decades ago by researchers at Columbia University, ETH Zurich, and the Toulouse School of Economics suggests that the core mission of the project has been highly successful.

“Economics-trained judges significantly shift legal outcomes in U.S. courts,” wrote the researchers. “They use economic analysis in their written opinions, render conservative votes and verdicts, rule against regulation, are somewhat more permissive on antitrust, and mete out harsher criminal sentences. When ideas move from economics into law, there are important policy consequences.” 

The Law and Economics Center’s judicial educational programs tend to take place at uber-ritzy junkets. Between 2021 and 2022, GMU brought federal judges to destinations including the university’s homebase of Arlington, Virginia; the beaches of Naples and Destin, Florida, and Maui, Hawaii; the mountains of Colorado and Montana; and the United Kingdom and Italy. The program also hosted an event in Leo’s adopted home of Bar Harbor, Maine, right around the time that the Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision.

“Mostly these George Mason things are not held in, you know, Arlington, Virginia,” said Fredrickson, the Georgetown Law professor. “They’re held in the Rockies or at Florida resorts, or in some other place where the judge doesn’t have to pay their own way, and it’s pretty nice to get a free ride like that.”

She continued, “If you look at their agendas, they work for an hour or two a day, and then they have ‘study time,’ where in the afternoon, they get to go and ‘study’ — while they also, no doubt, are hitting golf balls… It ends up being a very slanted educational program, it’s the only one that’s going, and it’s awfully nice to hang out on the beach and think about antitrust law.”

Indeed, the agenda for an upcoming, weeklong “Economics Institute for Federal Judges & State Supreme Court Justices,” scheduled to be held in March next year at the Henderson Beach & Spa Resort in Destin, Florida, features ample “study time,” “afternoon breaks,” and free time. Educational programming effectively concludes at 12:15 p.m each day. 

“There’s nobody else who does this,” Fredrickson said of GMU’s Law and Economics program. “They are the ones who got in the business of offering these judicial educational seminars early on, and there’s been nobody with deep pockets who has stepped up to do the same… The major donations that have come in from Barre Seid and from the Koch Brothers into George Mason have enabled them to put on these programs.”

The Federalist Society’s judicial reimbursements don’t sound quite as posh — or so conspicuously like vacations. Generally, the judges are there to give lectures or speak to local lawyers or law students. 

Still, the group is constantly shipping judges all over the country. In 2021-22, the Federalist Society reimbursed judges’ travel to Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington state, and Washington, D.C.

“The whole thing is really troubling,” said Fredrickson, who previously served as the president of the American Constitution Society (ACS), the much-smaller, liberal counterweight to the Federalist Society.

While Fredrickson noted that ACS doesn’t have the budgetary resources for similar events, she said, “I don’t think that organizations like the Federalist Society — or maybe even like ACS, which is definitely less hard-edged than the Federalist Society — [should] be offering these kinds of junkets to judges. It’s not appropriate for the role that they are supposed to play in our judicial system.”

“When Do They Have Time To Be Judges?”

The federal judicial reimbursement data reviewed by The Lever shows more than 100 federal judges accepted paid travel-related expenses from GMU or the Federalist Society between 2021 and 2022. 

Some judges stand out for the frequency with which they are traveling on those institutions’ dime — specifically, judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. These judges disclosed receiving at least 54 reimbursements provided by the Federalist Society or GMU. 

Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, appointed by George W. Bush, listed 42 reimbursements in 2021 and 2022, more than any other federal judge whose financial disclosure forms were available online. GMU and the Federalist Society accounted for 20 of Sutton’s reimbursements. 

Last year, the records show, the National Security Institute at GMU’s Antonin Scalia Law School sent Sutton to Padua, Italy, to teach and meet with students, according to his annual disclosure. The Federalist Society sent Sutton to Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, D.C, to present lectures and participate in conference panels.

Judge Chad Readler, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, listed 24 reimbursements, 20 of which were provided by GMU and the Federalist Society. 

Judge Amul Thapar, appointed by Trump in 2017, listed 14 reimbursements in 2021. Eight of those travel-related expenses were paid by the Federalist Society. Thapar and Sutton are both known as top “feeder judges”; many of their law clerks go on to work for Supreme Court justices.

Asked about the judges’ travel, Fredrickson joked: “Sounds pretty nice. When do they have time to be judges?”

The Sixth Circuit did not respond to an emailed request for comment. 

Earlier this year, Sutton issued an opinion striking down a buffer zone law designed to prohibit anti-abortion activists from harassing patients and blocking the sidewalk in front of an abortion clinic in Louisville, Kentucky.

This fall, Sutton and Thapar issued a decision allowing Tennessee and Kentucky to enforce laws banning gender-affirming care for minors, meaning that doctors must stop using puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries to treat transgender youths. The ruling acceded to the demands from Tennessee’s Republican attorney general and 21 other GOP state attorneys general who filed an amicus brief in the case.    

Leo’s dark money network has long been the top financier of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which elects GOP law enforcement chiefs and helps coordinate their efforts to influence policy and shape judicial decisions. The Leo network donated $1 million to the association earlier this year and $6.5 million in the 2022 election cycle, according to data from Political Moneyline.

The Sixth Circuit case on gender-affirming care could soon come before the Supreme Court and its conservative supermajority, as the families and physician involved in the case have petitioned justices to review the lower-court’s decision.