If you haven’t heard, there’s a white guy billionaire running for president! No, not Bloomberg. No, not Tom Steyer. Do you like coffee? Then you’re going to love former Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz! Now, before you get too excited for such a venti primary choice, Howard Schultz—a self-proclaimed “lifelong Democrat”—told Squawk Box’s Andrew Sorkin that he isn’t going to run as a Democrat. Why? Bad logic, that’s why! The Daily Beast has an excerpt of Schultz’s mind-bending political prowess:
“I respect the Democratic Party. I no longer feel affiliated because I don't know their views represent the majority of Americans. I don't think we want a 70 percent income tax in America,” he said. Ocasio-Cortez's idea to tax earnings over $10 million at 70 percent has wide support, according to polls—a recent Hill-HarrisX survey found that 59 percent of voters back it. Schultz went on to say: “The way I’ve come to this decision is, I believe that if I ran as a Democrat, I would have to say things that I know in my heart I do not believe, and I would have to be disingenuous.”
So, you’re not really a Democrat per se. You’re a libertarian who feels like the centrist Democratic politics that the overwhelming majority of registered Democrats do not believe in runs in the face of your special feelings about not wanting to pay taxes. There’s one thing that billionaires do not want out of government—anything that makes them less of a billionaire.
You can watch a little of Schultz’s slower-speaking impression of Ross Perot below the fold.