Microsoft founder Bill Gates criticized the Republican tax legislation, telling CNN on Sunday that he and other extremely wealthy people should have to pay significantly higher taxes.
"I need to pay higher taxes," said Gates, who is worth more than $90 billion and is rated as the second richest man in the world. "I've paid in absolute more taxes, over $10 billion, than anyone else, but the government should require the people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes."
Gates criticized the GOP tax law for having the wrong priorities and said, despite Republican claims, it was not designed to help the country’s working and middle classes.
"It was not a progressive tax bill," he said. "It was a regressive tax bill. People who are wealthier tended to get dramatically more benefits than the middle class or those who are poor, and so it runs counter to the general trend you'd like to see, where the safety net is getting stronger and those at the top are paying higher taxes."
Gates, who has donated more than $40 billion of his personal wealth to charity, said, "All advanced democracies have to think about" the effects of rising inequality.
"You still have about a sixth of the population living in conditions that should be very disappointing to us, and government policies need to really think, 'Why aren't we doing a better job for those people?'"
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