Billionaire GOP Donor: I’m Using My Tax-Cut Money To..

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Billionaire GOP Donor: I’m Using My Tax-Cut Money To Help Elect Democrats
"For the good of the country, the Democrats must take back one or both houses of Congress.”
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By Ed Mazza
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A major GOP donor is jumping ship and now he’s contributing to Democratic candidates in hopes of flipping the House of Representatives and/or the Senate in this year’s midterm elections.

Seth Klarman, the billionaire CEO of the Baupost Group who the Economist once dubbed “The Oracle of Boston,” called out Republicans for failing to keep President Donald Trump in check.

“The Republicans in Congress have failed to hold the president accountable and have abandoned their historic beliefs and values,” Klarman told the Boston Globe. “For the good of the country, the Democrats must take back one or both houses of Congress.”

Klarman, an independent who donated more than $7 million to GOP candidates during the presidency of Barack Obama, has now cut checks to Democrats in 56 House races and 22 Senate elections, the newspaper reported.

“I received a tax cut I neither need nor want. I’m choosing to invest it to fight the administration’s flawed policies and to elect Democrats to the Senate and House of Representatives,” Klarman said.

Klarman also donated $2 million to nonprofits backing core Democratic issues, including gun control and the environment, the Globe reported.

While Klarman contributed far more to Republicans in 2016, he actually backed Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, calling Trump “completely unqualified for the highest office in the land,” according to Reuters.

His views have not changed since the election.

Last year, Klarman described Trump as a “threat to democracy,” per audio obtained by New York magazine. He also warned against Trump’s protectionist agenda in a letter to his investors, saying such policies “not only don’t work, they actually leave society worse off,” The New York Times reported.

In the same letter, he sounded the alarm about the Trump-backed tax cuts that were ultimately enacted by the Republican-led Congress.

“The Trump tax cuts could drive government deficits considerably higher,” Klarman wrote, noting that cuts in 2001 under President George W. Bush “fueled income inequality while triggering huge federal budget deficits.”

Now, he’s putting his money where his mouth is, donating his own proceeds from those cuts to work against the Republicans who enacted them.