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Sen. Elizabeth Warren needs one among her greatest critics to face lawmakers in a listening to subsequent week.
Warren, a progressive Democrat from Massachusetts, is inviting billionaire investor Leon Cooperman to testify earlier than a Senate Finance subcommittee listening to.
Cooperman, in a response given to CNBC, acknowledged he obtained the invitation and stated that he’s contemplating Warren’s invitation. The senator requested that Cooperman affirm his attendance by Thursday.
Warren, in a letter to Cooperman first obtained by CNBC, referred to as on the financier to attend a listening to being organized and led by the Finance Committee’s Fiscal Accountability and Financial Development subcommittee, which she chairs. The listening to, set for April 27, is titled Creating Alternative By a Fairer Tax System.
Warren advised Cooperman within the letter she is interested by giving the longtime Wall Avenue government “a chance to debate my Extremely-Millionaire Tax Act, which might stage the financial taking part in subject and slender the racial wealth hole by asking the wealthiest 100,000 households in America, or the highest 0.05%, to pay their justifiable share.” The letter was despatched to Cooperman on Monday.
A rivalry between Warren and Cooperman exploded through the Democrat’s marketing campaign for president. After she proposed a wealth tax through the main, Cooperman blasted her proposal in a letter to the lawmaker.
“Nevertheless a lot it resonates along with your base, your vilification of the wealthy is misguided, ignoring, amongst different issues, the sources of their wealth and the substantial contributions to society which they already, unprompted by you, make,” he stated on the time.
A month later, Warren’s marketing campaign ran a TV advert on CNBC taking purpose at Cooperman and different enterprise leaders. Her marketing campaign additionally offered a mug that learn “BILLIONAIRE TEARS” in response to a CNBC interview throughout which Cooperman cried.
Cooperman has since accomplished quite a few interviews ripping Warren’s tax proposals, together with a CNBC look in March wherein he suggested viewers to purchase gold if such a invoice passes.
“If the wealth tax passes, exit and purchase your self some gold as a result of individuals are going to hurry to search out methods of hiding their wealth,” Cooperman advised CNBC on the time.
Cooperman expressed skepticism Tuesday about Warren’s invitation.
“I am attempting to find out whether or not she’s being goal or whether or not she’s simply attempting to advertise her personal agenda,” Cooperman advised CNBC in an announcement. “I am a bit suspicious given how she by no means responded to the letter I despatched her earlier than.”
Cooperman, who will flip 78 two days earlier than the listening to, is likely one of the most outspoken members of the investor group. He usually speaks of his rags-to-riches story: rising up within the South Bronx because the youngster of working-class Polish immigrants, attending public colleges, and beginning his first Wall Avenue job – with Goldman Sachs – in debt and with zero internet price.
After greater than twenty years with Goldman, Cooperman based the hedge fund Omega Advisors in 1991. He’s now the CEO of the Omega Household Workplace. Final yr, he signed the Giving Pledge, which is a dedication by wealthy folks to donate a majority of their wealth to charity.
“That is the American Dream,” he stated. “I wish to give others the chance to stay the American Dream.”
Warren addresses Cooperman’s points along with her wealth tax concept within the letter despatched Monday, encouraging him to debate his issues in entrance of her committee and people watching from house.
“However as we transfer expeditiously towards consideration of modifications to our rigged tax code in order that the rich pay their justifiable share, I consider you need to be afforded the prospect to current your perspective on to Congress,” she writes to Cooperman. “The chance will mean you can absolutely air your views, not merely in entrance of the monetary information viewers the place you usually categorical them, however earlier than everything of the American folks.”
Warren and different Democratic lawmakers have pitched a 3% complete annual tax on wealth exceeding $1 billion.
They’ve additionally referred to as for a lesser, 2% annual wealth tax on the web price of households and trusts starting from $50 million to $1 billion.
Cooperman’s internet price is at $2.5 billion, in response to Forbes.
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