Interviews during 2017-2019: on Tax Reform
Jo Jorgensen:
Lower or eliminate businesses taxes; end Federal income tax
Q: Raise or lower taxes on the wealthy and corporations?Jo Jorgensen: Lower. Don't raise taxes on the rich; lower or eliminate all business taxes for maximum job creation. End federal income tax.
Howie Hawkins: Raise. Favors progressive tax reform, including financial transactions tax, wealth tax, estate tax, and land value tax.
Source: CampusElect on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 30, 2020
Jo Jorgensen:
Against a wealth tax; income inequality comes from choices
Jorgensen also touched on income inequality, which she said there's not a problem at the top. "Whenever we have progress," she said, "whenever we have technology -- and people working to better their lives -- we have a wealth gap,
because there are opportunities that some people make that others, either choose not to or whatever." Jorgensen was very much against anything having to do with a wealth tax, as that word, "tax," is not anything Libertarians stand for.
Source: WIZM 92.3 FM/1410 AM Radio on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jun 13, 2020
Joe Biden:
Repeal high-income excess business losses tax cut
I would finance this new student debt proposal by repealing the high-income "excess business losses" tax cut in the CARES Act. That tax cut overwhelmingly benefits the richest
Americans and is unnecessary for addressing the current COVID-19 economic relief efforts.
Source: Medium.com blog on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 9, 2020
Bill de Blasio:
Favors tax increases on wealthy
The mayor has more than once
proposed tax hikes on the wealthy.
Source: Townhall.com: "The 2020 Democrats" (presidential hopefuls)
May 18, 2019
Andrew Yang:
Fund programs from tech companies now paying no tax
Q: How do you pay for your programs?A: Who are going to be the biggest winners from new technologies of self-driving cars and trucks? It's going to be the biggest tech companies in our country. How much did Amazon pay in federal taxes last year?
AUDIENCE: Zero!
A: So when people ask how are we going to fund this, we have to go where the money is. We have to implement a new mechanism to get that money back from Amazon and bring it back to the American people to build a trickle-up economy.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2019
Howard Schultz:
Would increase taxes on rich, sketchy on details
Schultz agreed it would be important to raise taxes on the wealthy, but he was unable to say by how much. He acknowledged that economic inequality should be
fixed but provided scant details on how that can be achieved, only characterizing progressive plans to tackle inequality as "socialism."
Source: Mother Jones mag.: 2019 SXSW for 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 1, 2019
Bill Weld:
Cut capital gains tax; look at flat tax on income
Federal taxes need serious adjustment downward. I favor repealing the federal death tax, for example, and cutting the capital gains tax rate to 10%. These taxes are not major revenue raisers, and they both have the perverse effect of penalizing people
for a lifetime of hard work. Eliminating them will increase our aggregate national wealth, which should always be a key priority of the United States government.But we also need to restructure our entire tax system. We don't need to choose between
Robin Hood-style confiscatory taxation and deficit-creating tax cuts for the super-rich. We should instead take a good long look at some other models, such as a 19% flat tax on income, and the famous "post card" tax return. I have read extensively
on the subject, and I believe the savings from the dramatic simplification of the Internal Revenue Code and the whole process of taxation would be enormous.
Source: Speech in New Hampshire by 2020 presidential hopefuls
Feb 15, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
Comparison of Trump wealth tax to Warren wealth tax
Sen. Elizabeth Warren wasn't the first major American politician to put the idea of a tax on large fortunes. Trump's plan, as articulated during a 1999 flirtation with a Reform Party presidential bid, differed from Warren's in three important respects:
- He wanted the tax to be a one-time levy that would reduce the national debt and therefore reduce interest service payments. Warren's plan would simply levy a smaller tax each year.
- He wanted a fairly hefty rate--14.5%. Warren's rate
structure is much lower than that.
- He set the threshold for his tax lower. While Warren wants to tax fortunes worth more than $50 million, Trump proposed taxing wealth starting at $10 million. This was in 1999; in inflation-adjusted dollars, that's
$15 million.
Warren has a progressive rate structure: Assets worth between $50 million and $1 billion would be taxed at 2%, and assets above $1 billion taxed at 3% tax. Trump's tax is flat but starts lower.
Source: Vox.com analysis of 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jan 31, 2019
Eric Swalwell:
The wealthy should pay more taxes
Swalwell called for raising taxes on the wealthy. Asked by Fox News if he agrees with a proposal by Elizabeth Warren to place a wealth tax on the ultra-rich,
Swalwell said, "she's right that the wealthiest Americans are getting off the hook and paying less. ...ÿI do support increasing the taxes that the wealthiest pay." He also advocated upping the tax rates for some businesses.
Source: Fox News Network on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jan 31, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
2% wealth tax on assets over $50M; 3% over $1B
The wealth tax proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren: 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.
Source: Washington Examiner on 2020 Presidential Hopefuls
Jan 29, 2019
Mike Bloomberg:
Wealth tax is counterproductive and unconstitutional
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 percent 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 in the Democratic Party will 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 Presidential Hopefuls
Jan 29, 2019
Julian Castro:
Raise the top marginal tax rate; negotiate the numbers
Q: What about the GOP tax cuts?A: I absolutely would look at undoing the tax cuts that benefited the super wealthy and benefited corporations.
Q: Would you raise the top marginal tax rate?
A: I support raising it. We would have to negotiate on
where that goes. They did a poll: 45% of Republicans said that they believe the idea of that kind of top marginal tax rate was a good idea. So, I believe that we should increase it. Now, where it goes to, I think that would be a subject of negotiation.
Source: CNN 2019 "State of the Union" on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 27, 2019
John Delaney:
Increase marginal rate, tax investments like income
I think marginal tax rate should be higher but if we actually want to create more fairness in our tax code, we would also start taxing investment income more similar to what workers get paid at.
There's a massive kind of unfairness between the amount of taxes people pay who invest for a living, versus people who pay who work for a living. And I think that can generate more revenues for the government.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interviews of 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 13, 2019
Kamala Harris:
Payments to needy, not tax breaks for the rich
The Lift the Middle Class Act would provide monthly cash payments of up to $500 to lower-income families, on top of the tax credits and public benefits they already receive. "Last year, Congress gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to corporations,"
Harris told me. "That money should have gone to American taxpayers who need it instead of handing it over to corporations and the top 1 percent."Harris is offering as much as $3,000 a year for a single person or $6,000 a year for a married couple, on
top of existing tax and transfer programs, disbursed either as a lump-sum tax refund or as a monthly payment. Working families making less than $100,000 a year would qualify, including those making close to nothing. As many as 80 million
Americans would benefit, Harris's office has estimated, with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculating that the proposal would lift 9 million people out of poverty, including nearly 3 million kids.
Source: The Atlantic, "Tax Plan," on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Oct 18, 2018
John Kasich:
Reduce tax withholding by 3.1%
Kasich announced he was looking at a possibility of reducing the tax withholding tables that determine how much money is taken out of employee's paychecks to cover their tax burdens. Kasich wants to reduce the withholding table by 3.1% which would bring
it in line with the planned reduction of 6.3% from a few years ago that was not fully implemented by the state legislature.Ultimately, reducing the withholding table means that less of an employee's money is taken out of their paycheck and set aside
to cover their income tax liability. Technically that gives the employee more money to spend and increases their spending power, but is not likely to be a significant amount. The idea is to be even at the end of the year; not owe a bunch, not get a
bunch back.
So why bother? Because the State can. Several years ago, the state legislature chose to only reduce the table by half the planned amount out of concerns over the cost to do so. It would cost around $150 million to make this adjustment.
Source: NBC4 WCMH TV Columbus on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 13, 2018
David Koch:
Spending $20M to popularize Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut
The Koch brothers and their network of wealthy donors have a lot to be happy about after the first year of the Trump administration. And they plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help ensure they stay happy.
The Koch network--known formally as the Seminar Network--has pledged to devote around $400 million toward politics and policy in the midterms to hold the GOP majorities in both chambers.
The sum includes $20 million that the Koch brothers plan to put behind efforts to popularize the $1.5 trillion tax cut. The network spent $20 million last year pushing the legislation.
The Kochs didn't support Trump in 2016, though they have strong ties to Vice President Mike Pence and key members of Trump's staff and Cabinet.
Source: Boston Globe on 2020 presidential hopeful, "Koch Rally"
Jan 29, 2018
Oprah Winfrey:
Resents the high taxes the government makes her pay
She may be worth $2.8 billion, according to Forbes, but don't count TV megastar Oprah Winfrey in with other billionaires who feel they aren't taxed enough. Then there was her interview in 2011 with Piers Morgan when she addressed the
pain writing checks to the IRS for over $100,000. "The most pain I feel - my accountants will tell you this - every time I write a check to the IRS. It's a ceremony. They come in - for years they came in with wine - now they come in with tequila."
Source: Washington Examiner speculation on 2020 Presidential hopeful
Jan 10, 2018
Paul Ryan:
GOP tax cut saves $700 for people earning $30,000
Paul Ryan's Tweet: Meet Cindy: a single mom, making $30,000 per year, who hopes to one day get beyond living paycheck to paycheck.
With a $700 increase in her tax refund each year under our tax bill, Cindy can start saving for her future.
Source: Twitter posting for 2020 presidential hopefuls
Nov 19, 2017
Tom Steyer:
Tax reform bill keeps the rich happy but hurts middle class
"It turned out that the system that had benefited people like me, was in fact stacked against everyone else. It's why I left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good," Steyer says. "But here we are, 9 years later, and this
President and a Republican Congress are making a bad situation even worse.""They won't tell you that their so-called tax reform plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations while hurting the middle class. It blows up the deficit," he says.
Source: CNN coverage, "$10M ad buy" on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Oct 16, 2017
Lincoln Chafee:
Ordinary Republicans vote against their economic interests
He thinks most ordinary Republican voters are pulling the lever against their economic interests. "Tax cuts for the wealthy!" he says. "What is the average person thinking when they go to vote for someone who supports more tax cuts for the wealthiest
Americans? The average person is gonna end up with a bill, but when the economy crashed millionaires still had their homes and their jets and still did fine."
Source: The Week magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 3, 2017
Tom Steyer:
Implement 1 percent annual wealth tax on America's richest
Along with filling in the holes of our Swiss cheese tax code, Congress should institute a new type of tax altogether: a 1 percent annual wealth tax on the top .1 percent of Americans. Here's what that would look like. If you are worth more
than $20 million, you'll pay a single penny on every dollar you have above that level. No deductions, no exemptions, no loopholes at all. Every .1 percenter pays.
Source: Steyer Op-Ed in USA Today by 2020 presidential hopefuls
Oct 22, 2016
Deval Patrick:
Called for cutting state sales tax, hiking income tax
Patrick called for a sharp increase in the state income tax and a deep cut in the sales tax.In his annual "State of the State" speech, Patrick asked the state Legislature to approve a hike in the state's
5.25 percent income tax to 6.25 percent and a reduction in the 6.25 percent sales tax to 4.5 percent. Patrick said proceeds, estimated at $1.9 billion a year, would go to public education and transportation projects.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jan 17, 2013
Mike Gravel:
I advocate a FairTax: pay as you spend
On the Fair Tax: "The biggest problem we have domestically is our tax system. Under the current system, if you're poor and have no income, you get nothing. Average people carry the load, and the poor are unattended. So, I advocate a Fair Tax.
What we'll do under this plan is send you a check every month for the sales tax that you will pay on the essentials of life. This will protect the poor.
It will cover their basic expenses. The rest of us will pay as we spend. The more you spend, the more you pay. If you don't want to pay, don't spend.
So, this will create a cash flow to the poor, not only to the average citizen."
Source: National Review magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 1, 2007
Page last updated: Nov 01, 2021