Hedge fund manager has a simple reason why the rich should support Hillary Clinton

Marc Lasry (Credit: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
Marc Lasry (Credit: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)

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Billionaire Marc Lasry, who runs distressed-debt hedge fund Avenue Capital, laid out a simple explanation why he’s voting for Hillary Clinton even though his tax bill will likely go up.

“At the end of the day, an individual has to decide whether he or she is going to do what’s best for the country or what’s best for them,” Lasry told Yahoo Finance in a recent phone interview.

“If you vote for Trump, your taxes will go down and the deficit goes up $5 trillion. If you vote for Hillary, taxes go up and the deficit stays where it is. So, I get it, but you’ve got to decide. We’ve all done extremely well. You’ve got to decide — Are you looking out for your kids’ interests or your own?

“It’s not more complicated than that,” he added.

Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman recently reported that under Clinton, the 1% would pay an extra $117,760 in taxes per year, with the bill rising $805,250 for the top 0.1%, according to data from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Meanwhile, under Donald Trump’s tax plan, the top 1% would save $214,690 per year, with the top 0.1% saving $1.066 million.

“If my taxes go down, will that change my life? No. But it will make future generations’ lives much more difficult as there will be less money for infrastructure and other social services,” Lasry said.

In other words, saving a few hundred thousand on a tax bill isn’t going to make that big of a difference for someone like Lasry.

It’s along the lines of what billionaire investor Warren Buffett recently said about money.

“There comes a point where money really has no real utility,” Buffet said. “You can use it to show off, but you can’t do much else with it. I don’t think it’s good for your family. It can do wonders for people around the world.”


Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.

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