During an interview with “60 Minutes,” newly sworn-in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed a tax on the wealthiest in America that could be as high as 60 to 70 percent.
You read that right, Ocasio-Cortez said she wants to tax the wealthiest Americans 70 percent of their earnings.
And for what? To pay for her “Green New Deal” which focuses on climate change efforts.
From Politico:
Speaking with Anderson Cooper in a “60 Minutes” interview scheduled to air Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez said a dramatic increase in taxes could support her “Green New Deal” goal of eliminating the use of fossil fuels within 12 years — a goal she acknowledges is ambitious.
“What is the problem with trying to push our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?” Ocasio-Cortez asked. “There’s an element where yeah, people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes.”
Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that in a progressive tax rate system, not all income for a high earner is taxed at such a high rate. Rather, rates increase on each additional level of income, with dramatic increases on especially high earnings, such as $10 million.
Here’s more, from Fox News:
Rising Democratic star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in a new interview that she could fund her proposed “Green New Deal” in part by slapping a tax as high as 70 percent on top earners.
Ocasio-Cortez, sworn in as Congress’ youngest member on Thursday, is one of a number of Democrats who backs the Green New Deal — which aims to combat both climate change and income inequality with a massive and costly economic overhaul. Ocasio-Cortez has called it “a wartime-level, just economic mobilization plan to get to 100% renewable energy.”
A draft text circulated around Congress lays out a framework that includes eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and agriculture and “dramatically” expanding energy sources to meet 100 percent of power demand through renewable sources.
The Washington Post reports the rate hike would return the tax near historic highs and would only affect those Americans who make more than $10 million a year.
“Talking to Anderson Cooper, the new House member suggested the new tax rate apply to Americans earning more than $10 million a year, noting that similar rates existed in America a few decades ago,” the Washington Post reports. “The top tax rate was above 90 percent during the 1950s, and while it has slowly descended, it remained as high as 50 percent for much of President Ronald Reagan’s tenure in the 1980s.”
Such a rate hike would be a tremendous increase from the recently reduced rate of 37 percent.
“American households that earn more than $600,000 annually currently pay a 37 percent tax rate, down from the 39.6 percent rate they paid before the Republican tax law passed in 2017,” the Post continued. “Conservatives have pushed for lower taxes on the rich as a spur to economic growth, while liberals see potentially untapped revenue that could fund their key social spending priorities, such as Medicare for all and free college tuition.”
Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino criticized the proposal as “devoid of reason” and said people who propose the ideal are “intellectual lightweights.”
“This is a statement devoid of reason and common sense which is strictly designed to appeal to intellectual lightweights with zero understanding of who pays taxes, in what amounts, and in what percentages,” Bongino said in a Saturday morning tweet. “Please, dance all you want, but crack a book in between.”
