Arrogant NY Times Puzzled Why ‘Merely Rich Rush’ to Defend ‘Fabulously Rich’

New York Times reporter Jonathan Weisman is once again pushing taxes on “the ultrarich” who deserve to get soaked. He found an interesting story, libertarian hedge fund son Adam Wyden vs. his hard-left father, Sen. Ron Wyden, which he marred by injecting his own obvious hankering for gouging “billionaires.” The reporter seemed puzzled why the rich son wouldn’t want to pile taxes on even richer people like Elon Musk.

Even the headline was ideologically tilted in the Sunday edition story: “Rift Between Wyden and Son Shows the Challenge of Taxing the Ultrarich.”

ADW Capital Partners could be the hedge fund ADW Capital Partners that Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee want to tax more heavily. It is small, but it’s growing quickly

No wonder, then, that its owner, Adam Wyden, has come out as a vocal and vociferous critic of the tax increases being pushed by the committee’s chairman, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon — his father.

The public dispute between son and father over the elder Mr. Wyden’s dogged efforts to tax the wealth of the superrich and close loopholes that have particularly benefited the richest financiers has accentuated a particular phenomenon that has helped to shield America’s billionaires. Every time Congress weighs taxes on them, those who are not wealthy run to interference for the extraordinary rich.

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But as President Biden’s $2.2 trillion social safety net and climate change bill has languished in the Senate, Mr. Wyden has kept alive the proposals his son has spoken out against. One would tax the annual wealth gains of about 700 American billionaires, some of whom were shown in a series of ProPublica reports to have paid a tiny fraction of their wealth in taxes, while some paid no income taxes at all. It would generate $557 billion over 10 year and transform the Build back Better Act into an effective deficit reduction tool.

Why would a billionaire change his behavior to avoid being taxed on their fortune?

Weisman dug into the finances of Wyden, the hedge fund operator, as if to prove his concerns weren’t relevant because they may not impact him directly.

Adam Wyden, however, is not one of those big whales Senate Democrats want to use as a way to fund their spending. With three employees, a little more than 150 investors and $329 million in assets under management, ADW Capital Partners is successful but no titan….

Weisman, who apparently knows Adam Wyden’s business better than the man himself, arrogantly assured readers:

He would in no way be hit by his father’s wealth tax, which would be levied only on people with $1 billion in assets or $100 million or more in income over three consecutive years….

It Times beat up on the younger Wyden for defending Elon Musk after he “insulted Senator Wyden with what appeared to be a vulgar slight.”

Dennis Kelleher, who heads Better Markets, a group that works against income inequality, said the marshaling of little guys to protect the big guys “happens all the time.”….

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[Adam Wyden]He is not the only one who stands up for the super-rich. To counter tax inheritances, the billionaire class relies heavily on ranchers and farmers.….

Weisman offered similar “soak the rich” energy in his October analysis of Biden’s “safety net and climate change” proposal currently languishing: “How Democrats Would Tax Billionaires to Pay for Their Agenda.” He ranted about “the richest of the rich” with their “mountains of wealth.”