Known for speaking out and saying exactly what’s on his mind, billionaire Omega Advisors CEO Leon Cooperman told the world how he really feels about Elizabeth Warren in a recent, profanity-laced interview with 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.”
Warren has released one policy plan after another in her campaign to win the Democratic primary and go on to face incumbent President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election, and she plans to pay for her social programs and giveaways by hammering the rich with wealth taxes.
The big wealth tax Warren has proposed is 2% on earnings above $50 million, and 3% on earnings above $1 billion. The tax would pay for a wide range of perks and giveaways, including free public college, wiping out student loan debt, universal childcare, green energy, Medicare for All — of which she’s still $30 trillion short of paying for — and more.
And a wealth tax such as Warren’s is contrary to the American dream, according to Cooperman, who let fly against the Massachusetts senator in an article called “Corporate America Freaks Out Over Elizabeth Warren.”
“What is wrong with billionaires? You can become a billionaire by developing products and services that people will pay for,” said Cooperman, a former Goldman Sachs executive. “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.”
Warren also has repeatedly said she will go after big corporations and break up big technology companies. Most on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley “feel mostly paralyzed” about what to do other than throw money at her opponents because every time they speak out, she turns it into a campaign line — and it’s working.
Warren has $26 million in her campaign coffers, all raised without corporate dollars. In fact, every time someone from Wall Street attacks her, she turns it into a talking point and only makes her stronger.
When CNBC’s Jim Cramer recently said Wall Street executives were afraid of her and that she has “got to be stopped,” she immediately tweeted her approval and the tweet has nearly 23,000 retweets and 121,000 likes.
I’m Elizabeth Warren and I approve this message. https://t.co/2Ewkbm0ZwA
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 10, 2019
It’s things like that that has led to widespread frustration on Wall Street.
“There’s really not a damn thing you can do about Warren. There is nothing,” a prominent Wall Street hedge fund manager and Democratic bundler who is raising money for a Warren rival told Politico. “It’s the same thing Republicans went through with Trump. You look at her and think what she is going to do is going to be horrible for the country. But if you say anything about it you just make her stronger.”