Late night hosts make billionaire tax policy entertaining, boo the Halloween weed edibles scare

published 28 October 2021

"It was yet another day of bickering for lawmakers in Washington, D.C.," this time over a "Billionaires Income Tax," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Last Show. "Now, the details are a little complex, let me try to explain it: Billionaires, there's this thing called taxes, and you should pay any."

"Calling it a billionaire income tax was smart branding by the Democrats, because Republicans are going to sound pretty out-of-touch if they oppose it — which they immediately did," Colbert said. "No word on what's gonna happen with this, except that Joe Manchin is against it so it's dead."

"Senate Democrats rolled out a new tax proposal that would only target the 700 richest Americans as a way to help Biden's spending plan," Jimmy Fallon said on The Tonight Show. "It's tough for billionaires: If you'd like to sponsor one, you can make a difference for just $34 million a day." Sadly, "by this afternoon, Democrats scrapped the tax on billionaires, and now they might tax millionaires instead," he added, explaining how that will affect each of the Kardashians.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Democrats "have been struggling" to craft a tax policy "Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema both support," but they found one with "requiring big corporations to pay a minimum tax of 15 percent," Trevor Noah said on The Daily Show. "Now, because of his previous positions, it might be surprising to hear that Joe Manchin is actually pro-raising taxes on corporations," but he has cleverly branded it a "patriotic tax," he said. And "Manchin is right: Paying taxes is patriotic. Part of loving your country is financially supporting your country. You can't say you love your child if you're sending all your money to some other kid who's in the Cayman Islands."

"There will be no trick-or-treating at the White House this weekend — they were planning to do the traditional handout of candy, but Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema blocked it," Jimmy Kimmel joked on Kimmel Live. "This would never happen under Trump — every day under Trump was Halloween. Every day he woke up in the morning, he put on a full pumpkin face, ate garbage out of a bag, and scared the hell out of everyone."

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.