Billionaire Mark Cuban attacks Elizabeth Warren over tax hike plans: ‘Screw you’

Billionaire basketball team owner and media personality Mark Cuban hit out at Sen Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for suggesting that ultra wealthy Americans like him should pay higher taxes.

Appearing at Vox Media’s Code Conference earlier this week, Mr Cuban, whose personal fortune is estimated at $4.6bn, called Ms Warren “everything that’s wrong with politics”.

“I don’t mind being taxed more. I wrote a blog 20 years ago saying it’s the most patriotic thing you can do, after military service, is pay your taxes, because that’s what allows everybody to live and to prosper,” Mr Cuban said in response to a question about his thoughts on Democratic plans to increase taxes on the rich.

“But yeah, the idea of ‘soak the rich,’ billionaire tears that sell that cup — screw you, Elizabeth Warren,” Mr Cuban continued. “You’re everything that’s wrong with politics.”

Mr Cuban has been outspoken about his political views for years, and floated running for president in 2016 before announcing that he would not be a candidate. Mr Cuban has long been critical of fellow businessman Donald Trump and supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden quests to defeat the Republican in 2016 and 2020.

But Mr Cuban has also spoken fondly of the influence of Ayn Rand and called himself a fiscal conservative. Ms Warren, a progressive who has made calls to increase taxes on the country’s top earners a centerpiece of her political career, is not an ideological ally.

During her campaign for president in 2020, which ended in defeat in the Democratic primary, Ms Warren proposed a new “ultra-millionaire” tax of two per cent on households of a net worth of $50m or more and has introduced or supported various other proposals during her time in the Senate to increase taxes on the super rich.

Mr Cuban hit out at the possibility of new tax on unrealised gains on investments, last year, telling Fox Buisness Network, “I don’t think Elizabeth Warren knows at all what she’s talking about when she deals with this. I think she just likes to demonize people that are wealthy and that’s fine.”

Prior to her election to the Senate in 2012, Ms Warren was a decorated law professor at Harvard University who led the drive to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the presidency of Barack Obama in 2010. Ms Warren’s proposed wealth tax would affect just half of one percent of American households and bring in trillions of dollars of new revenue each year.

Ms Warren has in the past criticised other billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk over their opposition to progressive economic policy.