Chuck Schumer

Some of you may know Chuck Schumer. He is the mouthy senior Democratic
Senator from New York, first elected in 1998. He is the third ranking
Democratic senator and is Vice Chairman of the caucus. He ranks behind majority
leader Harry Reid and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin.

Schumer was born in 1950. His political career began as an Assemblyman
in New York State in 1975. Schumer has been a legislator for 36 of his 60
years, obviously a ‘professional’ politician.

Among the committees that Schumer serves on, his sub-committee on
taxation IRS oversight and long term growth may be his most important.

Schumer supports higher taxes on the wealthy – which by Schumer’s
definition may be any one earning more than $60,000 a year – and yet the
Democratic stalwart ‘tax-and-spend liberal’ seems to have the support of every
Wall Street big wig in the state and there are a lot of them.

If you look at the donations to Schumer’s campaigns and compare it to
his Republican opposition he would dwarf their total which is unusual as
Schumer is potentially vulnerable since Republicans have won senate seats in
New York.

How can Schumer, while mouthing off anti-capitalist rhetoric, still have
the support of the Wall Street crowd? What is his secret? I suggest it’s his
membership on the sub-committee on taxation.

I’m not sure whether Schumer is responsible for one of the largest tax
breaks handed out to the rich in the United States but I have never seen any
evidence that he opposes it. This is a man who supposedly opposes all tax breaks.

So what is this tax break? In layman’s language, money management fees
earned on a success basis are taxable as capital gains. Again, in layman’s
language, if you’re a money manager and you charge a 1% management fee, you pay
regular income tax levels. If your bonus for success is 20%, the 20% is taxable
at capital gains rates, which in the U.S. is currently 15%.

Need I say more?