Saturday's edition of The Weekend on MS NOW ran a segment that began with clips of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries repeatedly saying that the Democrats' philosophy is "strong floor, no ceiling."
Turns out, Jeffries had cribbed that phrase from Oliver Libby, author of a book with that title. The show had Libby on as a guest, and though he is a center-left Democrat, both hosts pushed back against Libby's belief that there should be no ceiling on the success of Americans.
Substitute host Molly Jong-Fast began the attack, skeptically asking, "is no ceiling really appropriate; is no ceiling really the play?" She finally worked up to suggesting, "Maybe there should be a ceiling!"
Libby stood fast: "I don't think there should be a ceiling."
Jong-Fast claimed that whereas the old assumption was that the ultra-rich would contribute to society through philanthropy, Elon Musk has proved that isn't the case.
Perhaps Musk's philanthropy hasn't lived up to liberals' expectations, but he has signed the Giving Pledge, committing to giving away at least half his wealth. And in addition to donating billions to his charitable foundation, Musk [per Grok] has made direct contributions totaling over $100 million to St. Jude's Children's Hospital, the XPrize Foundation, and smaller grants to organizations like Wikimedia Foundation, Future of Life Institute (AI safety), and environmental groups.
Most telling was Eugene Daniels' suggestion that "you can't become a billionaire nowadays without taking from, taking advantage from people who have a lot less."
Daniels' notion that the economy is a zero-sum game, that people can only become rich by making other people poorer, is classic Marxist ideology.
To his credit, Libby replied: "I don't think that's correct . . . The fact of the matter is, most people who make a billion dollars created a product that people want to buy."
Libby added: "The idea isn't to say that you hit a certain ceiling and then you're done."
Exactly. Because if the government puts a cap on how successful people can be, it simultaneously caps the benefits those people can contribute to society, such as through useful new products and services and job creation. The invisible hand of free-market capitalism has brought more people out of poverty than all government programs in history.
Note: [Per Grok] Musk has described effective philanthropy as "extremely difficult," emphasizing the challenge of creating real impact over appearances.
For example, consider Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation to establish an education foundation to improve Newark, NJ's schools. It was matched by other philanthropists, bringing the total to $200 million. The foundation closed after five years, with Newark's mayor admitting that the project had failed.
Here's the transcript.
MS NOW
The Weekend
12/27/25
7:43 am ETEUGENE DANIELS: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is rolling out a new motto to punch back at the socialist label his Republican rivals are trying to attach to the Democratic party's agenda. Listen.
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: As Democrats, we believe in a strong floor and no ceiling. Here's my view of what the Democratic party represents. We believe in a strong floor and no ceiling. As Democrats, we believe in a strong floor and no ceiling. And here's what Democrats stand for. We believe in a country with a strong floor and no ceiling. As Democrats, you know, we believe in a country that has a strong floor and no ceiling.
DANIELS: The leader did not come up with this on his own. As the Washington Post points out, the phrase comes from the title of a book written by a Manhattan venture capitalist named Oliver Libby that offers more than 50 mostly centrist proposals. And the idea, quote, posits that everyone should have the government support to pursue the American dream without limiting the success available to those already at the top.
. . .
MOLLY JONG-FAST: Oliver, though, I'm curious about this no ceiling idea, because we are in a world where wealth inequality is, you know, we have the richest people are richer than ever, right?
And part of the reason the middle class is having so much trouble is because there are very, very, very wealthy people who are paying very, very small fractions of their wealth in taxes.
And we thought, you know, the original thinking was they would make up for that in philanthropy. People like Elon Musk have proven that that is is pretty much not what they're doing.
So, is no ceiling really appropriate? I mean, you know, I come from a fairly -- we both went to the same private school, so we both know, you know, that we come from a certain group.
And, and I just wonder, is no ceiling really the play? I mean, don't you think that people who have over a hundred million dollars should be taxed at a higher rate? And don't you think that we have, you know, we're about to have trillionaires? Like, do you think no ceiling? Like, maybe there should be a ceiling!
OLIVER LIBBY: Yeah, Molly, thank you. I don't think there should be a ceiling. And I don't think, actually, most people in this country think there should be a ceiling. No ceiling does not mean no rules. And if you get into the policies in the book, the economics chapter is the longest one. You know, there's a lot about taxation, about enforcing the tax code.
. . .
DANIELS: What do you say to people who say, you can't become a billionaire nowadays without, you know, taking from and taking advantage of people that have a lot less than?
LIBBY: I don't think that's correct. I think most people who become billionaires and look, I run a venture firm and we have invested for almost two decades in companies that help people and the planet. And if you look at the founders we've backed, they are from all walks of life.
DANIELS: But the billionaires now, like Elon Musk and, you know, the tech bros that were at the swearing in of Donald Trump, they're not exactly doing the work that you were doing. They're doing something completely different.
LIBBY: Well, but look at it. I mean, most of the unicorns, most of the tech companies that sell for a billion dollars are founded by immigrants and well over half them have female founders.
I mean, this is a time in history where we are not to be capping what you can aspire to do. We just ought to be putting the right rules around it. And and the fact of the matter is most people who make a billion dollars created a product people want to buy. That's inherently American.
Now, we should be better as a society about what products we want to buy, maybe, and about what we ask people who achieve great wealth to do with that wealth. But the idea isn't to say that you hit a certain ceiling and then you're done.
I mean, that's, and look, we, it's interesting, you know, strong floor no ceiling is not something we tested. I didn't run a single poll when I was writing the book. I just sat there writing.
But now we've, we've actually gone out there and, you know, it's like 100 percent of the people we've asked think that there should be no ceiling to what you can do if you follow the rules, pay your taxes and do right.
