Speaking on Thursday, August 22, successful entrepreneur and Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy warned that if Vice President Kamala Harris’s wildest tax proposals are ever implemented, they risk creating the conditions that would quickly lead to a second Great Depression. Vivek made that point about the cost of tax hikes at a Trump campaign event.

The tax idea about which Vivek was speaking was a proposal from the Biden Administration, one that Kamala Harris apparently backs, for a 25% tax on unrealized capital gains on assets over $100 million dollars. Such a tax would force Americans who hold assets like stocks, real estate, and private businesses to pay the 25% tax on any increase in value of those assets, even if the appreciated asset isn’t sold.

Ramaswamy said, speaking about how the tax would work and cause a massive cost to those who hold assets and save, “You don’t want to sell, but you’re forced to sell because you have to pay the tax out of pocket. But it turns out you won’t be the only person required to do that. Somebody else will be required to do that, too, but they’ll have to do it at a lower price because you already sold, and your sale drove down the price of the asset.”

Continuing, the former entrepreneur emphasized how forcing constant sales would continually drive down the price of assets and thus cause another Great Depression. He said, “And then when the next person does it, that triggers down the price of the asset further. But the guy sitting next to him has to sell that asset to pay his taxes. That is how you trigger what you call a downward spiral in asset prices. It’s the best formula for triggering a second Great Depression, if we ever have one.”

Vivek then explained how the idea would end up most harming the poor despite ostensibly just targeting the rich, saying, “The reality is, you know who’s gonna be holding the bag at the end of it? The people who don’t hold liquid assets. Most people who are wealthier [are] well-advised enough to know that they [need to] hold a significant portion of their assets in liquid holdings.”

Then commenting on how the proposal would eviscerate entrepreneurs just trying to build a small business, he said, “But think about that entrepreneur who started a small business, a barbershop, a restaurant owner who might be having early success but needs to reinvest in their business to grow it. They don’t have the cash to pay it because they’re all in on their business. They’re the ones who are ultimately going to actually have to pay the price.”

He also added that Kamala is even worse than outright socialists like Bernie, saying, “I respect the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders more than I respect Kamala Harris. The only thing worse than somebody who believes the wrong thing is somebody who advances the wrong policies while actually believing nothing at all. And I think that’s what we’re getting with Kamala Harris today.”

Watch him here:

.@VivekGRamaswamy lays out exactly how Kamala Harris' capital gains tax would trigger the next Great Depression. pic.twitter.com/WEXrvCucnh

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 22, 2024