Former Clinton Labor Sec. Robert Reich on why US needs a wealth tax

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and author of "The Common Good," joins CNBC's "Power Lunch" team alongside "The Profit's" host Marcus Lemonis to discuss Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax and the so-called war on wealth.

[meaner]

Spent 75 million of my own money to give people a chance bull 75 million of his own money to make even more money off of not paying people for their labor

[AudiTTQuattro]

..."I want a seat at the table". When you have significant wealth, you can buy a seat at the table. When you don't, you get one vote.

[mrblond]

Marcus is a perfect example of how people with large quantities of money think their entitled. I make around 30K a year, I pay my taxes and I get no say in where my contribution goes and neither should he. The 75mil that he is so eager to brag about donating to local businesses I’m sure was tax deductible and put him in a lower tax bracket, but good on him for doing so, if he did. .02 cents on 75mil is 1.5mil, hardly a drop in the bucket. It makes no sense that he would willing say he happily parted with 75mil then follow that up with how much he’s against
a .02 on the dollar wealth tax. He’s nothing but hot air and BS.

[cormackeenan]

How can you penalise wealthy people by a wealth tax, when they already have more money then they can spend in one thousand lifetimes, its plain and simple greed nothing more and nothing less.

[pbcycleops]

Any one that “works”, including billionaires.
Rule 1. PAY THE TAX!

To those asking Reich questions in this news segment, what is hard about the basic concept?
See Rule 1, above.

[SkyPe]

When this guy said he gives 75million dollers to small business he lost me. If you can afford to give away that much you can pay higher taxes.

[duncanbleak]

Progressive taxation in the 90's gave the U.S. long-term sustained growth and a debt-to-gdp ratio headed in the proper direction.
Fiscal responsibility. What a concept.

[ThaRealERAQ]

A tax that wont really impact this guys life at all he is fighting over. Smh. What will that money do you when the us falls completely into 3rd world status from lack of reinvestment

[olzt]

Everyone would like to be wealthy. But no one addresses the reality that most hard-working people will never become wealthy. Why is there so much protection and support for five percent of the population and so little support for ninety-five percent of the population?

[michaelrch]

Capitalist: "I paid a lot of tax.I want a seat at the table on how it's spent.
Democrat: "you have one. It's called your VOTE"
Anyone who thinks that money should buy political power wants an oligarchy, not a democracy.

[b]

It sounds like billionaires are saying if progressive taxation takes more of their money than they are entitled to a huge seat at the table of government. That is exactly what the current problem is. Do the people want a democratic or a plutocratic government? If we wait much longer that choice will be taken out of our hands.

[mapowing]

Did Marcus say or imply that the wealthy are driving us to deficits?? 😂 The little people like me can’t even buy the vote from our elected, wealthy officials!!!

[Idontanswerquestionz]

"I want a seat at the table if you take my money" .... So does every American citizen who pays a much higher percentage of non-disposable income to taxes but we don't have all the disposable income to BUY our elected officials for the seat at the table so wtf are you complaining about

[auflytaz]

If you're going to have someone like Robert Reich on then have an actual journalist interview him. Preferably someone with at least a modicum of integrity

[Mishk]

The real issue is that no person is deserving of earning such extremes amount of wealth in the first place. All these debates are “ok given that this is where we are what do we do about it?” But the real question is what makes Marcus believe he personally deserves every penny of the money he now has? What made him say to himself that he should pay it to himself and not all the people who work their ass off each day helping his company succeed? That’s the real question.

[tyd]

The point 1 percent is so whiney. Pay the rent to live here or gtfo!!!

[steveb]

It’s going to trickle down. I just know it is. I just know it is.

[carlbrew]

Basically what Mr Lemonis is proposing by asking for a "seat at the table" in order to determine where his "wealth tax" dollars are being spent is for him to have more than "One Man, One Vote" voice. This is so antithetical to our political system. We live in a Democratic Republic. If there are political candidates who win elections on the platform of taxing the overwhelmingly wealthy by instituting a "wealth tax" and they win, this is what Democracy looks like. If they lose on that same platform, that's Democracy too. Mr. Lemonis' "seat at the table" is his one vote voice and he can always call his representative to voice his displeasure of paying $20K for each $1M over $50M.

[jacobwinn]

The wealthy, the successful entrepreneurs etc didn't make their wealth in a vacuum. There were social systems in place which enabled them to get educated, get inspired, get funded, get started and get wealthy. Those systems are paid for by everyone. Having the wealthy pay more tax simply means they pay their share in keeping those same systems going, which will enable more wealth creation.

[Raykibb]

When the wealth of the bottom 90% equals that of top 1/10 of the 1%, the pitchforks are being sharpened. Notice the protection of these billionaires when out in public. I still prefer a marginal tax rate as Eisenhower had.