Interviews during 2018-2020: on Tax Reform
Tom Steyer:
Upper income people have done disproportionally well
Steyer is in favor of raising taxes. In 2017, Steyer said that upper-income individuals have done "disproportionately well" at the expense of working-class people.
His campaign website states that Steyer "backed an initiative that closed corporate tax loopholes, generating at least $1.7 billion for public schools."
Source: Townhall.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 9, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
War tax on non-military households to support vet healthcare
Non-military households would pay a "war tax" to help cover the health care of veterans under a plan O`Rourke's campaign unveiled. Money collected would go into a new trust fund for veterans. Households making less than $30,000 per year would pay $25;
less than $40,000 would pay $57; less than $50,000 would pay $98; less than $75,000 would pay $164; less than $100,000 would pay $270; less than $200,000 would pay $485; and those making more than $200,000 would pay $1,000.
Source: CNN.com coverage of 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 24, 2019
Kamala Harris:
Monthly tax credit would provide base income
Harris did introduce legislation to provide "middle class and working families with a tax credit of up to $6,000 a year--or up to $500 a month--to address the rising cost of living." It could fix one of the biggest drawbacks with the tax-credit system:
It's distributed just once a year. "A monthly payment would be responsive to that because it would provide you a base income you can rely on," says a senior research associate at the Tax Policy Center.
Source: Mother Jones magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 23, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
The wealthy should pay their fair share in taxes
During an interview with CNBC's John Harwood, Buttigieg said "the reality is there are some people who are not paying their fair share. Some people frankly are getting a bit of a free ride on the productive energy of this country and this economy."
He said he would consider raising the marginal tax rate for high-earners. Additionally, he said a wealth tax makes sense, as does potentially expanding the estate tax for the biggest and wealthiest estates.
Source: Fox Business News on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 15, 2019
Wayne Messam:
Shifting tax burden from business not in national interest
"I think when we all realize that we're in the same boat, and when we can put those tax cuts and resources and invest back into Americans, when businesses are paying their fair share so that all the burden isn't on the working class--I think not
only are we better as Americans, but we're better as a nation. And I think it's a matter of our economic security that we all realize that we're all in the same boat. And that's coming from a person who's a business owner."
Source: WBUR FM (Boston) on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 9, 2019
Cory Booker:
Helped people claim earned-income tax credit
But then he talked about how to flex the earned-income tax credit, and the centers he set up in Newark when he was mayor to help poor people file their returns to claim it. He spoke about paid family leave, and how
American law should be at least as good as the policies in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Source: The Atlantic, "Under the Radar," on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 4, 2019
Amy Klobuchar:
Changes in corporate tax would fund infrastructure
Q: What about infrastructure?A: Infrastructure is an economic need. I have the funding, I've shown how I can get this plan done, and as president I will get it done.
Q: You want to raise the corporate tax rate, which the Republicans just cut. That might be a heavy lift.
A: Look at what they did, they went down to
21 percent and every point if even to put it at 25 percent, which is a significant decrease from where it was, we would bring in $400 billion to pay for roads and bridges and levies and schools. That's a lot of money.
Or how about the way they did the overseas income where they took an average rate instead of assessing it for each country. If we went back to each country, $150 billion in savings.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interviews for 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 31, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
Wealth tax would generate revenue for 'common benefit'
"Fundamental to this experiment to America and our democracy is ensuring we don't have princes and princesses, kings and queens, a concentration of wealth and power and privilege," the former U.S. Representative from Texas said at a campaign stop
in Rock Hill, South Carolina. "That is exactly what we have in this country right now." A wealth tax would generate revenue for "our common benefit," such as infrastructure projects and health care, he said.
Source: Bloomberg News, "Wealth Tax," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 22, 2019
Bernie Sanders:
1974: 100% tax over $1 million
During his 1974 Senate run, Sanders said one plan to expand government included making it illegal to gain more wealth than person could spend in a lifetime and have a
100% tax on incomes above this level. (Sanders defined this as $1 million dollars annually). "Nobody should earn more than a million dollars," Sanders said.
Source: CNN KFile, "Nationalization," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
Everyone should sacrifice, with higher top marginal tax rate
He also believes in a version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's call for a higher top marginal tax rate, though he doesn't volunteer the 70 percent number, and he makes a different sort of argument. "If you're trying to mobilize this country to meet an
existential threat, as we did against the Nazis in World War II, then you're going to have to ask everyone to sacrifice," he says. "If you don't see a shared interest or shared opportunity to advance,
then we'll no longer see ourselves in this together and this country will truly break apart. This level of gross income inequality cannot persist,
and if there's a better way to get there, I'm open to it. But it's definitely going to involve higher marginal rates on the very wealthiest in this country."
Source: Joe Hagan in Vanity Fair on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 13, 2019
Julian Castro:
Senior/disabled property tax freeze favored wealthy
Castro was the first council member to advocate for a ballot measure to permanently freeze San Antonio's property taxes for seniors and disabled, even though the city already exempted the elderly from the first $65,000 of their home's value, and the
first $12,500 of a disabled resident's home value. Rather than propose raising these thresholds, Castro favored a blanket freeze. This would chiefly benefit residents in the city's North Side, where property values were higher.
Castro balked at raising property taxes. The 2009 budget cut them by less than 0.2 cents. When one council member suggested raising them in 2010 to avoid service cutbacks, Castro demurred. "I'm very comfortable leaving the property tax rate
where it's at," he said. "We have made significant spending cuts over the last couple years and that has served us well during this budget year." By the time he left office, property taxes in the city hadn't gone up for more than twenty years.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2020 Democratic primary contenders
Feb 15, 2019
Andrew Yang:
Value-Added Tax as part of new capitalist philosophy
Yang has voiced plans to institute a carbon tax on fossil fuel gasoline. He has also proposed a Value-Added Tax. Yang has mentioned the institution of a new capitalist philosophy which he says will be geared
towards "maximizing human well-being and fulfillment." However, he hasn't provided any details as to how this would be legally integrated into the market.
Source: Townhall.com: 2020 Democratic primary "Candidate profiles"
Feb 6, 2019
Bernie Sanders:
Raise income tax & fix estate tax: hardly Marxist ideas
Sanders' views correspond to only a small portion of the socialist program advocated by Karl Marx in his Communist Manifesto and are a far cry from Marx's vision of a stateless communist society he posits would follow.
Sanders would raise income taxes and lower the exemption on estate taxes from $5.4M to $3.5M, but he calls for something far less radical than the "abolition of all rights of inheritance".
Source: The Economist "Socialist?" on 2020 Democratic primary
Feb 1, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
Wealth tax: $4.1 billion per year on fortune of $137 billion
Asked about a wealth tax proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the very wealthy former New York City mayor said the idea was probably unconstitutional, definitely counterproductive, and something to be avoided at all costs. Anyone favoring radical
redistribution, Bloomberg said, should look south for an example to avoid: "It's called Venezuela" [which currently has a socialist government].The policy on the table: a 2% wealth tax that Warren would levy on the total assets of individuals worth
more than $50 million and 3% on individuals with more than $1 billion. Per a Forbes analysis, this means that Jeff Bezos, whose $137 billion fortune makes him the richest man in the world, would owe the IRS an additional
$4.1 billion each year.
Critics might complain that [Bloomberg's comparison] is heavy-handed, as the Warren wealth tax pales in comparison to the wealth redistribution of the Chavez-Maduro regime in Venezuela.
Source: Washington Examiner on 2020 Democratic primary contenders
Jan 29, 2019
Mike Bloomberg:
Progressive tax yes; wealth tax no
Some of the most popular issues among Democratic candidates--tuition free college, Medicare for all and a wealth tax--were among the proposals Mike Bloomberg deemed unrealistic, too expensive and even unconstitutional.
He calls for a more progressive tax rate, but sees the wealth tax advocated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as going too far. "I believe that that plan should be bold and ambitious and most importantly achievable,"
Bloomberg said. "You've got to do something that's practical."
Warren hit back at Bloomberg's claim that her wealth tax proposal is "probably unconstitutional." The Massachusetts Democrat said in a tweet, "Billionaires like Howard Schultz and
Michael Bloomberg want to keep a rigged system in place that benefits only them and their buddies. and they plan to spend gobs of cash to try and buy the presidency to keep it that way. Not on my watch."
Source: Stephanie Murray on Politico.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Jan 29, 2019
Mike Bloomberg:
The wealthy prefer the current rigged system
Some of the most popular issues among Democratic candidates--tuition free college, Medicare for all and a wealth tax--were among the proposals Mike Bloomberg deemed unrealistic, too expensive and even unconstitutional.
He calls for a more progressive tax rate, but sees the wealth tax advocated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as going too far. "I believe that that plan should be bold and ambitious and most importantly achievable,"
Bloomberg said. "You've got to do something that's practical."
Warren hit back at Bloomberg's claim that her wealth tax proposal is "probably unconstitutional." The Massachusetts Democrat said in a tweet, "Billionaires like Howard Schultz and
Michael Bloomberg want to keep a rigged system in place that benefits only them and their buddies. and they plan to spend gobs of cash to try and buy the presidency to keep it that way. Not on my watch."
Source: Stephanie Murray on Politico.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Jan 29, 2019
Mike Bloomberg:
Wealth tax is unconstitutional & counterproductive
Asked about a wealth tax proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the very wealthy former New York City mayor said the idea was probably unconstitutional, definitely counterproductive, and something to be avoided at all costs. Anyone favoring radical
redistribution, Bloomberg said, should look south for an example to avoid: "It's called Venezuela" [which currently has a socialist government].The policy on the table: a 2% wealth tax that Warren would levy on the total assets of individuals worth
more than $50 million and 3% on individuals with more than $1 billion. Per a Forbes analysis, this means that Jeff Bezos, whose $137 billion fortune makes him the richest man in the world, would owe the IRS an additional
$4.1 billion each year.
Critics might complain that [Bloomberg's comparison] is heavy-handed, as the Warren wealth tax pales in comparison to the wealth redistribution of the Chavez-Maduro regime in Venezuela.
Source: Washington Examiner on 2020 Democratic primary contenders
Jan 29, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
Curb inequality: 2% tax on assets over $50M; 3% over $1B
Warren wants to curb spiraling inequality and make the rich pay. Most Americans currently pay property taxes to their local government, a form of a wealth tax. The majority of middle class assets are property. Rich people of course own real estate, but
they tend to mostly own shares of stock and other financial assets that largely evade taxation.Warren's proposal is for a progressive wealth tax: a 2 percent levy on assets more than $50 million, and a 3 percent rate that only kicks in when you have
more than $1 billion.
The mere existence of the wealth tax would, on the margin, encourage wealthy individuals to dissipate their fortunes on charitable giving and lavish consumption. Wealth taxes, though once common in developed countries, have gone
out of style in recent years. While 12 OECD members had wealth taxes in 1990, just four--France, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland--do today. Warren's proposed rate would be slightly lower than Spain's but higher than the other three.
Source: Vox.com on 2020 Democratic primary contenders
Jan 24, 2019
Julian Castro:
Top earners, corporations should pay "fair share"
I can support folks at the top paying for fair share. There was a time in this country where the top marginal tax rate was over 90 percent, even during
Reagan's era in the 1980s it was around 50 percent. So do I support, in order to have something like Medicare for all, that we ask folks that are in the top .05 percent or .5 percent or top 1 percent to pay more?
And, also, that we get more serious about making sure the corporations pay their fair share, and that we're smart about understanding how instead of folks having to pay sky
high premiums to companies that are seeking a profit to deliver health care that we can have a better system, even if that means that we rearrange where those dollars go? Yeah, I support that.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interviews for 2020 Democratic primary
Jan 6, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
Making housing affordable by raising estate tax
Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill tackling the issue head on, trying to lower the cost of homes in neighborhoods with greater economic opportunity. The legislation, titled the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act,
is perhaps the most far-reaching assault on housing segregation since the 1968 Fair Housing Act. It's ambitious, pouring half a trillion dollars over 10 years into affordable-housing programs, and funded by raising the estate tax to Bush-era levels.
Source: The Atlantic, "Housing Crisis," on 2020 Democratic primary
Sep 25, 2018
Tom Steyer:
OpEd: Steyer's tax proposal would hit poor hardest
Tom Steyer wants to bail out California's troubled university system with a 10% oil extraction tax. It would generate about $2 billion annually. Steyer suggests his tax would make little difference at the pump because energy is a global market.
But the costs either would be passed along to consumers, which would hit the poor and various government budgets hardest, or it would be absorbed by the oil companies, which would mean less investment, fewer jobs, less tax revenue.
Source: Human Events magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
May 26, 2015
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021