June Democratic candidates debate in Miami FL: on Tax Reform

Andrew Yang: Value-added tax would generate $800B taxes & $700B GDP

YANG: You have trillion-dollar companies like Amazon paying literally zero in taxes. If we had a value-added tax at even half the European level, it would generate over $800 billion in new revenue--it would be the trickle-up economy. We would spend the money and it would circulate through our regional economies, creating millions of jobs. We'd save money on things like incarceration & homelessness services. Just the value gains from having a stronger, healthier, mentally healthier population would increase GDP by $700 billion.

Q: You are saying $1,000 a month for everyone over 18, but a VAT so you can spend that $1,000 on VAT?

YANG: You still would be increasing the buying power of the bottom 94% of Americans. You have to spend a lot of money for a mild value-added tax to eat up $12,000.

Bernie Sanders: Medicare-for-All raises taxes on middle class, but net gain

Michael Bennet: Obama-Biden sequester made Bush tax cuts permanent

V.P. Joe BIDEN: We needed to be able to keep the government from shutting down and going bankrupt. I got Mitch McConnell to raise taxes $600 billion by raising the top rate.

Sen. Michael BENNET: The deal that he talked about with Mitch McConnell was a complete victory for the Tea Party. It extended the Bush tax cuts permanently. The Democratic Party had been running against that for 10 years. We lost that economic argument, because that deal extended almost all those Bush tax cuts permanently and put in place the mindless cuts that we still are dealing with today that are called the sequester. That was a great deal for Mitch McConnell. It was a terrible deal for America.

Beto O`Rourke: Tax capital at same rate as regular income

A: I would support a tax rate and a tax code that is fair to everyone. Tax capital at the same rate that you tax ordinary income. Take that corporate tax rate up to 28 percent. You would generate the revenues you need to pay for the programs we're talking about.