Ron Johnson and the Billionaire Gang - article by The Shepherd Express
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For Millionaires Only
Johnson succeeded in adding fatter tax cuts for “pass-through businesses” where profits are passed through for owners to pay as personal income instead of corporate taxes. Johnson claimed those were small businesses that were “engines of innovation and job creation.” Actually, it was the way the nation’s richest billionaires and millionaires from Michael Bloomberg to Donald Trump organized hundreds of their businesses.
That’s why Johnson’s actions not only benefitted himself and his wife Jane, but also well-known Wisconsin billionaires, Dick and Liz Uihlein who ran a giant packaging company and roofing executive Diane Hendricks, who have funded the political careers of both Johnson and former Republican Gov. Scott Walker ever since 2010.
The Uihleins and Hendricks contributed $20 million to dark money groups financing Johnson’s re-election in 2016. It paid off handsomely for them. Together both businesses netted $215 million in tax deductions in 2018 alone and are expected to reduce their taxes by more than half a billion dollars throughout the eight years of the massive Trump tax cuts. Since the full ramifications of his political manipulations became public, Johnson has denied ever discussing those enormous tax cuts with his major donors. So what? Johnson clearly knew how overwhelmingly it would benefit them.
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In the latest Marquette University Law School poll, Johnson’s popularity had declined with only 35% of registered voters statewide viewing him favorably, not very promising for his re-election prospects in the midterms. That was even before taxpayers found out Johnson pulled the Great Treasury Robbery for the billionaire gang.