Warren paying billionaire's company to help her sell 'billionaire tears' mugs

The campaign for Democratic presidential candidate and prosperity-hater Elizabeth Warren is promoting her wealth tax proposal by selling a $25 coffee mug labeled with the words, "billionaire tears" — and she's lining the pockets of a billionaire in the process.

What are the details?

Warren has taken a great deal of heat from a number of billionaires (and pundits, and economists, and analysts) over the past several weeks for her plan, which critics say is unsustainable and unconstitutional. In response, her campaign released the "billionaire tears" mug, mocking one of several wealthy business titans who have publicly warned against the damage her tax could do to them not only personally, but to the economy at large.

"In November 2018, billionaire and former Goldman Sachs executive Leon Cooperman (who as recently as 2017 settled with the SEC on insider-trading charges) was brought to tears on live television while discussing the prospect that a President Elizabeth Warren might require him to pay his fair share in taxes," the promotion reads.

"Savor a warm, slightly salty beverage of your choice in this union-made mug as you contemplate all the good a wealth tax could do: universal health care, student debt cancellation, universal free college, and more."

But, The Daily Caller reported, it turns out Warren is actually helping line the pockets of a billionaire through the sales of the mug and everything else her campaign is hawking. The Democrat's campaign sells its wares through the Canadian firm Shopify, "whose founder and CEO, Tobias Lutke, is worth an estimated $2.8 billion."

The campaign has already shelled out more than $100,000 to Shopify for its services, so far.

Anything else?

Warren's "Ultra-millionaire tax" would place an extra annual tax on the assets of Americans with a net worth of $50 million or more. While analysts have warned that it would have a negative impact on the economy, Warren has made the plan a major plank of her campaign platform.

Planet Money reported earlier this year that of the dozen European countries that had wealth taxes in 1990, nine have since scrapped them due to ineffectiveness and an exodus of their wealthiest citizens.