{"id":6484,"date":"2026-08-13T09:06:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6484"},"modified":"2026-08-13T09:06:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:06:53","slug":"greedy-democrats-are-taking-aim-at-taylor-swift-and-youre-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6484","title":{"rendered":"Greedy Democrats are taking aim at Taylor Swift \u2014 and you’re next"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Taylor Swift is enemy No.1 to cash-grabbing Democrats in Rhode Island: They\u2019ve named their state\u2019s new vacation-home property tax after her. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Surprise, surprise \u2014rents are still soaring thanks to Mamdani<\/a><\/p>\n

They and other radical leftists across the country claim that by attacking the rich, including celebs like Swift, they\u2019re saving democracy.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be fooled.<\/p>\n

Their new forms of taxation \u2014 including wealth taxes, mansion taxes and second-home taxes \u2014 are fueled by jealousy and hatred for our free-market system, the work ethic and everything American.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And while Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax has been stalled in court, his \u201cenemies list\u201d of ordinary homeowners is evidence that you\u2019re the next target.<\/p>\n

You may not consider yourself \u201crich,\u201d but if you live in a blue state, these new forms of taxation will eventually hit you, too.<\/p>\n

After all, they have a way of expanding: New York\u2019s state Legislature is already considering a plan to impose Gotham\u2019s pied-\u00e0-terre tax statewide, according to Republican state Sen. George Borrello.<\/p>\n

Swift shelled out $17.75 million for her oceanfront Watch Hill, RI, spread in 2013 \u2014 but \u00a0the tax, which went into effect two weeks ago, is slapped on any vacation home worth over $1 million and occupied less than half the year.<\/p>\n

Similar tax-the-rich schemes are building steam in Connecticut, DC, and\u00a0California \u2014 and they\u2019ll continue until \u201cnot a single state . . . is a safe haven,\u201d the Democratic Socialists of America vowed in June.<\/p>\n

Connecticut Democrats are ramming through a \u201cmansion\u201d tax \u2014 its first-ever statewide property tax \u2014 an annual levy on homes valued at over $3 million, whether they\u2019re primary residences or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s on top of the sky-high local property taxes residents already pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the state legislature\u2019s veto-proof Democratic majority likely won\u2019t stop with the priciest homes: Connecticut\u2019s first income tax, imposed in 1991, was supposed to be temporary.<\/p>\n

Three decades later, it\u2019s still in effect \u2014 and it\u2019s expanded from a flat rate to seven ever-higher brackets.<\/p>\n

Washington, DC, is also proposing a \u201cmansion tax\u201d on high-value residences \u2014 all those valued at more than $2.5 million.<\/p>\n

Three tiny, but tony,\u00a0neighborhoods will bear the brunt: Georgetown, Kalorama and Massachusetts Avenue Heights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plenty of wealthy politicians will be hit, but unfortunately not Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, vocal advocates for wealth taxes. They\u00a0don\u2019t live there.<\/p>\n

Mansion taxes are proxies for wealth taxes, but in November Californians will vote on the real thing \u2014 the nation\u2019s first tax on total net worth.<\/p>\n

Read more Pennsylvania boy, 8, expected to catch a bass \u2014 he hooked a razor-toothed nightmare instead<\/a><\/p>\n

The Billionaires Tax Act, or Proposition 40, is billed as a \u201cone-time\u201d 5% tax on all forms of wealth, from homes and yachts to stocks, bonds and ownership interests in private companies \u2014 where the real money is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Its backers say 90% of the revenue will go to support health-care services for Californians, and health-care unions are its biggest supporters.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t buy the \u00a0\u201cone-time\u201d claim; once health-care services are funded, does anyone really believe they\u2019ll turn the spigot off?<\/p>\n

The state Democratic Party endorses the tax, but not presidential wannabe Gov. Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s pivoted instead to a national <\/em>wealth tax, warning that otherwise more California billionaires will follow Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and head for the exits.<\/p>\n

Newsom joins a chorus of lefties, including Warren and Sanders, making the preposterous argument that\u00a0 the existence of billionaires threatens democracy.<\/p>\n

Nonsense:\u00a0 Billionaire Mike Bloomberg blew through hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 \u2014 and won support only from American Samoa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And have they forgotten the $2 billion Kamala Harris burned in her failed White House run?<\/p>\n

Money doesn\u2019t guarantee political success.<\/p>\n

But democracy is<\/em> threatened by dire poverty: Hungry people will succumb more easily to the promises of a dictator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And poverty in the United States is half what it was in 1959, when the US Census began measuring it.<\/p>\n

The ideologues calling for wealth taxes aren\u2019t \u00a0telling you the truth \u2014 wealth taxes are economy killers, and workers are the victims.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Only 2.7% of the typical billionaire\u2019s wealth is in jewels, yachts, artwork,\u00a0homes and other tangible luxuries; almost all of it is in business assets \u2014 stock and ownership interests that provide the capital for businesses to buy the efficient trucks, faster computers and sophisticated equipment that increase worker productivity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0As Cato economists Adam Michel and Chris Edwards warn,\u00a0taxing wealth takes capital out of these companies, limiting worker productivity gains and the growth in future wages. Ouch!<\/p>\n

Wake up, America: You, too, are in the \u201cTax the Rich\u201d crosshairs.<\/p>\n

Call out these left-wing demagogues for their lies. In Taylor Swift\u2019s words, be \u201cFearless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The Band Perry\u2019s Neil Perry accuses sister Kimberly of firing him from band in favor of her husband<\/a><\/p>\n

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rhode Island has enacted a “Taylor Swift” tax on vacation homes over $1 million, part of a growing wave of progressive wealth taxes across the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-betsy-mccaughey","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nGreedy Democrats are taking aim at Taylor Swift \u2014 and you're next - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6484\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Greedy Democrats are taking aim at Taylor Swift \u2014 and you're next - 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