Warren campaign launches ‘a calculator for the billionaires’ after Gates criticism

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) presidential campaign hit back at criticism from billionaire Bill Gates over her wealth tax by releasing a “calculator for the billionaires.” 

“Some billionaires seem confused about how much they would pay under Elizabeth’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax. Don’t worry, now we have a calculator for that too,” the campaign’s tool says. 

The move comes after Gates called out Warren’s proposed tax on the wealthy, falsely estimating that he’d pay $100 billion under the plan. {mosads}

The calculator allows users to pick from eight billionaires to see how much the campaign estimates they’d pay under Warren’s proposal based on their estimated net worth. 

Gates, for example, would pay about $6.4 billion under the wealth tax based on an estimated net worth of $107 billion. 

“Don’t worry too much about Bill Gates – if history is any guide, if billionaires do nothing other than invest their wealth in the stock market, it’s likely that their wealth will continue to grow,” the campaign calculator says. 

Users can input their own “billionaire” wealth to estimate the cost they’d pay under the tax, or pick from Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Leon Cooperman, Betsy Devos’s family, Victoria Mars, Jim Walton and Jamie Dimon. 

Gates made his comments about Warren’s plan Wednesday speaking with New York Times writer Andrew Ross Sorkin at the outlet’s DealBook conference Wednesday. 

“I’ve paid over $10 billion in taxes. I’ve paid more than anyone in taxes. If I had to pay $20 billion, it’s fine,” Gates said. “But when you say I should pay $100 billion, okay then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over. I’m just kidding.”

He also suggested that Warren wouldn’t be “open minded” to sit down with him or “somebody who has large amounts of money.” 

Warren responded on twitter that she’s “always happy to meet with people, even if we have different views.”

She also said she’d like the chance to explain how much he’d pay under her wealth tax, which she said is not $100 billion as he suggested. 

Warren’s proposal calls for a 2 percent tax on household net worth between $50 million and $1 billion, and a 6 percent tax on net worth above $1 billion. 

The wealth tax has been become a center of her campaign, with supporters often changing “2 cents” in reference to the 2 percent tax at her rallies. 

Warren has said the tax would fund much of her progressive platform, including her universal pre-K and student loan forgiveness proposals. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has also proposed a wealth tax that kicks in at a lower threshold than Warren’s proposal. Sanders proposal plan starts with a 1 percent tax on net worth above $32 million for married couples. The plan has eight tax brackets, with the highest being the 8-percent bracket.