Like Michael Bloomberg, Christine Lagarde is a high priest of regressive taxes and EU dictat.
Michael Bloomberg says raising taxes on the poor is a “good thing.”
Like Michael Bloomberg, Christine Lagarde is a high priest of regressive taxes and EU dictat.
Michael Bloomberg says raising taxes on the poor is a “good thing.”
By Stephen Heins, The Practical Environmentalist of WIsconsin © 2002,
Apr 19, 2018
Bloomberg made his comments during an interview with Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
“The question is do you want to pander to those people?,” he asked, referring to individuals who say taxation of the poor is never a good thing, while also assuming it's the poor who are making that argument.
“Or do you want to get them to live longer? There's just no question. If you raise taxes on full sugary drinks, for example, they will drink less and there's just no question that full sugar drinks are one of the major contributors to obesity and obesity is one of the major contributors to heart disease and cancer and a variety of other things.”
Michael Bloomberg says raising taxes on the poor is a “good thing.”
IMF’s Christine Lagarde interjected, repeating Michael Bloomberg's analysis of regressive taxes.
'So it's regressive, it is good,' she said. 'There are lots of tax experts in the room. And fiscal experts, and I’m very pleased that they hear you say that.'
Lagarde then quoted a well-known phrase, attributing it to the financial experts in the room.
'They all say that two things in life which are absolutely certain. One is death, the other one is tax,' she said. 'So you use one to defer the other one,' she added, summarizing Bloomberg's point.
'That’s correct,' he said. 'That is exactly right. Well said.'
At this, those in attendance started applauding.
Energy poverty is likely to become a part of American life if energy taxes go up and fracking is banned. The European Union already has that problem. The EU further estimates that fully one-quarter of residents, or 128 million people (and that includes the existing 54 million), are at risk of being energy poor.
When Michael Bloomberg said raising taxes on the poor is a 'good thing,” the newly appointed Head of European Bank Christine Lagarde unsurprisingly agreed with him.
Bloomberg made his comments during an interview with Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund at the time and now head of the European Central Bank.
“The question is do you want to pander to [THOSE] people?,” he asked, referring to individuals who say taxation of the poor is never a good thing, while also assuming it's the poor who are making that argument.
“Or do you want to get them to live longer? There's just no question. If you raise taxes on full sugary drinks, for example, they will drink less and there's just no question that full sugar drinks are one of the major contributors to obesity and obesity is one of the major contributors to heart disease and cancer and a variety of other things.”
Michael Bloomberg says raising taxes on the poor is a “good thing.”