On stage at the New York Times DealBook conference, Bill Gates was asked about Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax and answered by pointing to his own ledger. "I've paid over $10 billion in taxes. I've paid more than anyone in taxes," the Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. "If I had to pay $20 billion, it's fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math about what I have left over." He added, a beat later: "Sorry, I'm just kidding."
The joke had a target. Warren was then running for the Democratic presidential nomination on an "Ultra-Millionaire Tax": a 2% annual levy on household net worth above $50 million, with a top rate she had raised that same month to 6% on fortunes above $1 billion to help pay for Medicare for All. Gates said he was not going to "make political declarations," and then made one anyway about the senator herself: "I'm not sure how open-minded she is. Or that she'd even be willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money."
