Obama: I’ve been called ‘Hitler’ for trying to tax hedge fund managers

“I’ve been called Hitler for doing this, or at least this is like Hitler going into Poland. That’s an actual quote from a hedge fund manager,” the president said Tuesday at a forum on poverty at Georgetown University in Washington.

The tax proposal in question is ending the tax preference for carried interest, which allows certain hedge fund and private equity managers to have their earnings taxed at the lower capital gains rate rather than the income tax rate because they are managing capital for clients.

Calling the preference a “loophole,” Obama said that closing it was emblematic of the budget choices that would be necessary in order to finance government spending on anti-poverty programs.

“If we can’t ask from society’s lottery winners to just make that modest investment then really this conversation’s for show,” Obama said of the discussion about poverty.

The president’s appearance on the panel involved a running debate with the conservative Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute.

Obama acknowledged common ground between liberals and conservatives, and said that he aimed to lessen “cynicism” about the possibility of combining good policies from both sides.

But he also argued that it is not possible to address poverty without also confronting rising inequality, and that the wealthy have grown detached from the poor and less willing to finance investments in government programs that aid the poor.

“If in fact we are going to find common ground, we also have to acknowledge there are certain investments we are willing to make as a society as a whole,” Obama said.

Obama claimed that the top 25 hedge fund managers out-earned all U.S. kindergarten teachers combined, and that the carried interest loophole was “real money.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2013 that eliminating the tax preference would raise close to $20 billion over 10 years.