Background Briefing: December 4, 2023

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SCOTUS Poised to Kill Any Wealth Tax Before It Even Exists

We begin with the case the Supreme Court takes up on Tuesday that will kill any proposed wealth taxes before they even exist and further weaken the government’s ability to collect revenue from the wealthy and powerful as dynastic wealth from the inheritors of billions now surpasses the wealth created by the entrepreneurial billionaires who created the fortunes. Joining us is Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he directs the Program on Inequality and co-edits Inequality.org. He is the author of Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Is Inequality in America Irreversible?, and his latest book is The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions.

 

The Texas GOP Refuses to Ban Contacts With Anti Semites, Pro-Nazi Sympathizers or Holocaust Deniers in Resolution Supporting Israel

Then we examine a proposed ban of those “known to expose or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or holocaust denial” that was rejected by the Texas Republican Party’s Executive Committee that was to be included in a resolution Saturday to support Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza. Joining us is Robert Downen, a reporter at The Texas Tribune covering democracy and the threats to it, including extremism, disinformation and conspiracies. We discuss his latest article at The Texas Tribune, “Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.”

An Exploding Sexual Assault Scandal Involving A Threesome With A Founder of “Moms For Liberty” Has DeSantis Asking his Friend, Florida’s GOP Chair, to Step Down

Then finally we speak with Timothy Canova, a Professor of Law and Public Finance at Nova Southeastern University College of Law in Florida who was an early critic of financial deregulation and warned of the dangers of the bubble economy. He was appointed by Senator Bernie Sanders to serve on an Advisory Committee on Federal Reserve Reform and we discuss the exploding scandal in Florida that has Governor Ron DeSantis asking his friend Christian Ziegler, the Chair of Florida’s GOP, to step down due to sexual assault charges from a woman who engaged in a threesome with Ziegler and his wife who is a founder of the moralistic book-burner’s organization Moms For Liberty.