Sen. Elizabeth Warren is picking the wrong billionaire in Leon Cooperman as an example of why America needs a wealth tax, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Friday.
Cooperman is the “wrong whipping boy,” said Cramer, praising the Omega Advisors founder — son of a Bronx plumber who became one of Wall Street’s most successful investors — for being charitable with his wealth. The Democratic presidential candidate has the “wrong guy here,” the “Mad Money” host added.
The Warren campaign was not immediately available to respond to Cramer’s remarks, which came a day after CNBC reported on a letter Cooperman sent to Warren, challenging the assumptions behind her case for the need to tax household net worth over $50 million at 2%. On Friday, she doubled her billionaire wealth tax to 6% from 3% to help pay for her “Medicare for All” proposal.
“The substance of the letter is unbelievable,” Cramer said on “Squawk Box.” “It’s not an incendiary letter. He’s debating their math.”
“It’s not a name-calling debate,” he added, referring to the part of the 2,600-word letter getting a lot of attention, in which Cooperman wrote that he feels like the liberal Massachusetts senator treated him as a child in her call for him to “‘pitch in a bit more so everyone else has a chance at the American dream.'”
Defending the contributions successful Americans make to society, Cooperman wrote, “For you to suggest that capitalism is a dirty word and that these people, as a group, are ingrates who didn’t earn their riches through strenuous effort and (in many cases) paradigm-shifting insights, and now don’t pull their weight societally indicates that you either are grossly uninformed or are knowingly warping the facts for narrow political gain.”
Cooperman, whose net worth is estimated at more than $3 billion, also wrote, “As a result of my good fortune, I have been able to donate in philanthropy many times more than I have spent on myself over a lifetime, and I am not finished; I have subscribed to the Buffett/Gates Giving Pledge to ensure that my money, properly stewarded, continues to do some good after I’m gone.”
The Giving Pledge, created by Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, invites the ultra-wealthy to give away more than half of their fortunes to help society.
Warren responded to Cooperman’s letter in a tweet, saying: “Leon is wrong,” adding the investor “can and should pitch in more.”
Last week, in a Politico interview, Cooperman unloaded on Warren’s bash-the-rich rhetoric. “What is wrong with billionaires? You can become a billionaire by developing products and services that people will pay for,” he told the website Politico. “I believe in a progressive income tax and the rich paying more. But this is the f—–g American dream she is s——g on.”
On CNBC last month, Cooperman said, “If Elizabeth Warren is elected president, in my opinion, the market drops 25%.” Cooperman’s concern about the senator’s policies highlights the angst that Cramer first described in September that he was hearing from executives on Wall Street and in corporate America about a Warren presidency.
CNBC’s before the bell news roundup
Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about about our products and services.
By signing up for newsletters, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.