Chase CEO Wants Everyone To Lay Off On Hating Rich People

In case you’ve been asleep for the last few months, there are more than a handful of people out there who aren’t too happy about the fact that executives at bailed-out banks are reaping huge salaries while none of them have been called to account for the actions that required them to be bailed out in the first place. But thank heavens that one ultra-wealthy CEO is willing to stand up for his fellow bullied bankers.

Speaking at an investor conference organized by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon ripped off the following statement that sounds like it was plagiarized from a draft of a bad Ayn Rand novel:

Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and that everyone who is rich is bad , I just don’t get it…. Most of us wage earners are paying 39.6 percent in taxes and add in another 12 percent in New York state and city taxes and we’re paying 50 percent of our income in taxes.

Of course, this statement flies in the face of President Obama’s recent claim that, “A quarter of all millionaires now pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households. Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1%.”

The President’s assertion is backed up by a recent Congressional Research Service study which found that in 2006, approximately 25% of taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes over $1 million paid a smaller portion of their income in federal taxes than 10% of those with AGIs below $100,000.

Jamie Dimon rails against ‘rich is bad’ talk [Philly.com]

Billionaires with 1% tax rates [CNN.com]

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