Tech billionaire Elon Musk issued a challenge to Joe Biden’s communication team, urging them to provide the president with the password to his own Twitter account. Musk’s statement implied that Biden does not personally compose his tweets.
Motzoei Shabbos, Biden tweeted, “It’s about time the super-wealthy start paying their fair share,” from his personal account. Roughly two hours later, Musk, who acquired Twitter last October, responded with his request directed at White House staff. He implored them, “Please give him the password, so he can do his own tweets. Please, I’m begging you!”
Musk’s challenge sparked a variety of reactions, ranging from memes speculating about Biden’s potential tweets to praise for Musk for throwing down the gauntlet. Some Twitter users expressed doubt about Biden’s authorship, while others criticized his election.
After his light-hearted comment regarding Biden’s Twitter activity, Musk shifted to a more serious tone. He remarked, “In all seriousness, I agree that we should make elaborate tax-avoidance schemes illegal, but acting upon that would upset a lot of donors, so we will see words, but no action.” Musk emphasized that lower to middle-income wage earners would bear the burden of excessive government spending through payroll taxes, while the wealthy would evade their fair share.
Biden has previously highlighted the issue of the ultra-rich not paying their fair share of taxes. On March 18, he tweeted about billionaires paying a lower tax rate than schoolteachers or firefighters, which received a context flagging on Twitter. An additional note clarified that the top 25 highest-earning billionaires pay an average tax rate of 16%, while many teachers and firefighters, who fall into the $50,000 to $100,000 income range, have lower effective tax rates.
In response to Biden’s March tweet, Musk mentioned paying a significant amount of taxes on his Tesla stock options and claimed to have paid more income tax than anyone in history for 2021, with similar expectations for 2022. He questioned the accuracy of the 3% figure mentioned in the tweet and previously stated that he would pay over $11 billion in taxes for the year 2021.
{Matzav.com}
