Posted on 01/12/2019 10:30:38 AM PST by yesthatjallen
House Democrats are treading carefully when it comes to talk of a 70 percent marginal tax rate on income above $10 million, an idea floated by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in a recent “60 Minutes” interview.
Many Democrats are supportive of the freshman phenom’s call for higher taxes on the rich, but even some progressives are stopping short of endorsing that high a marginal rate.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she thinks “the fact that people are not paying their fair share is a problem and the millionaires and billionaires are the ones where that has to rest.”
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a leader of the progressive caucus in the last Congress, said that while it’s important to make sure that “everybody’s carrying their load,” he didn’t know if 70 percent “would be the right number or not.”
House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said he wasn’t sure about a specific top rate but said that Ocasio-Cortez is “not off-base.”
Other Democratic lawmakers were more critical.
“I thought it was comical,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), a member of the tax writing Ways and Means panel.
“You can have reasonable taxation, and then you can send signals that we’re just going to go after people who have a few dollars,” he said.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is first vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said he would take a different approach to raising revenue, such as repealing past tax cuts on high earners, taxing corporations on foreign earnings that currently aren’t being taxed, creating a financial transactions tax and reducing U.S. military involvement overseas.
“My view is one that there are better ways of getting to the revenue” than a 70-percent tax on high incomes, he said.
Ocasio-Cortez floated the idea as a way to help pay for a “Green New Deal,” a proposal aimed at taking action on climate change.
More broadly, the new lawmaker has argued that a progressive tax system with higher taxes on the wealthy is well worth considering as the country looks for ways to pay for initiative on healthcare and other safety-net issues.
She also made the argument that such high rates are hardly unprecedented.
“You look at our tax rates back in the '60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system your tax rate, you know, let's say, from zero to $75,000 maybe 10 percent or 15 percent, et cetera. But once you get to, like, the tippy tops — on your 10 millionth dollar — sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She noted that a high marginal rate wouldn’t hit most Americans, and that it would also only pinch a portion of a wealthy person’s income. A 70 percent marginal rate on income of $10 million would be effective only on a person’s income above $10 million.
“That doesn't mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder you should be contributing more,” she said in the “60 Minutes” interview.
Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent told The Hill that what the congresswoman’s remarks on the show were “more conceptual” than a specific proposal for a 70 percent marginal rate.
The top marginal tax rate in the United States was above 90 percent in much of the 1950s and early 1960s, and the rate was 70 percent as recently as 1980.That year, the 70-percent rate applied to income over $215,400 for married couples.
During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the top rate was first cut to 50 percent and then lowered again to 28 percent.
In the last 25 years, the top rate has been in the mid-to-high 30s, with President Trump’s tax law lowering the top rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. In 2019, the 37-percent rate applies to income over $612,350 for a married couple filing jointly.
Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a 70 percent marginal tax rate does have the support of another freshman progressive lawmaker: Rep. Ayana Pressley (D-Mass.), who said she could potentially see herself introducing or sponsoring legislation down the line.
“I think we have a decisive mandate from this electorate, this 116th Congressional class to be bold. I think every creative solution needs to be on the table,”Pressley told The Hill. “And from a values based perspective to tax those, you know, who earn $10 million a year, I think it's exactly what we should be doing.”
Pressley said, while she and most members are currently focused on the partial government shutdown, she looks forward to continuing having a dialogue with like-minded members as they consider crafting policy.
ETC...
Are you the dog on ‘Family Guy’?
All Demoncrats agree with Occasional Cortex, but she is too stupid to know she isn’t allowed to let the general public know she thinks that.
Looks like a bunch of muzzies trying to get their jizya one way or another.
Two years ago, after working for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, Saikat Chakrabarti co-founded an organization called Brand New Congress with a lofty goal: Launch hundreds of progressive candidates into congressional races.
Hundreds didn’t exactly pan out. But one major star emerged from that process: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who shocked the political world this summer with a primary upset over rising party leader Joe Crowley (N.Y.).
Now Ocasio-Cortez is headed to Congress, with Chakrabarti as chief of staff.
Though they’ve been in Washington for only a few weeks, they’re already making a splash — clashing with incoming committee chairmen, joining a protest in Nancy Pelosi’s office and agitating for newly empowered Democrats to stake out ambitious goals on climate change. Chakrabarti turned heads by saying on a call, “We gotta primary folks.”
It’s all part of a broader strategy to deploy inside-out organizing, Chakrabarti said. Staying connected to the progressive movement — and the public eye — through attention-grabbing demonstrations and social media is part of gaining policy leverage.
In other words: Don’t expect them to back down.
“When you shoot for big stuff, you stay true to the movement, you fight unapologetically on the inside, that is a very, very powerful way to pass the radical solutions that are necessary to face the radical problems that you have,” he said.
Chakrabarti isn’t naive about the prospect of passing major liberal legislation with a Republican Senate and Donald Trump in the White House. And he wants to seek bipartisan achievements, citing the Senate effort to end support for the Yemen war as an example.
But he also has his eye on the long game, name-checking everything from the abolitionist movement to the country’s economic mobilization during World War II.
He has big policy dreams, like a “Green New Deal,” which would tackle everything from mitigating climate change to transforming the American economy, and criminal justice reform. He wants to lay the groundwork now to make them realities.
“Another thing to really do over the next two years is to basically show the American people what will be possible if the Democrats win the House, the Senate and the presidency in 2020, and that means putting our best foot forward,” Chakrabarti said. “It means putting the most ambitious, the boldest, the biggest things we can, and then just build a movement around that.”
That approach doesn’t surprise Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, the successor to Brand New Congress. She first met Chakrabarti on the Sanders campaign, where they regularly pulled 15-hour days.
“We’re in a very do-or-die moment, and I think he embodies the integrity of fighting for a better world,” she said. “He’s a progressive force.”
Though Chakrabarti is shifting from outside activist to inside player, he’s no stranger to career transitions. The 32-year-old Fort Worth native came to the Sanders campaign after growing disillusioned with the tech world. He co-founded Mockingbird, a web design tool, and then built up the product team at the payment processor Stripe. That followed a brief stint on Wall Street right out of Harvard.
Those earlier moves were propelled by a collegiate desire to start his own company, and the belief that technology was his generation’s way to change the world. Now he has his sights set squarely on the halls of power.
“You have to decide to create the society you want to create,” he said, “and that’s done through politics.”
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/politico-power-list-2019/saikat-chakrabarti/
Not sure what Jim Carey is worth but he endorses it.
Income over $1 million should not be taxed at all. There should be a limit on what a person has to pay. Why punish success? Everybody should pay a flat 10% on the first $1 million of income. That’s it.
Inheritance should NEVER be taxed.
Yes! And unfortunately, like the libs, they work ‘deceptively’ behind the scenes behind whoever they push out there as a front person ‘palatable’ to Americans so people don’t recognize what’s really up! This type of deception in the political field hidden behind candidates is all too frequent now because Internet connections and communication makes it possible.
The new “Caravan” and the others preceding it aren’t just happening because those people all just decided to get here........it’s completely organized by outsiders in conjunction with our elections and politics.
Cortez just didn’t pop out of nowhere either, and others like her we see running for office. It’s all part of the Globalist and No borders groups to “PUSH” through their agenda for this nation regardless of who is President....and frankly they’re all so deeply entrenched in our nation now I’m not so sure it can be stopped outside of military on both borders.
hmmmDid I forget the ‘sarcasm’ mark?
Or did you ‘miss’ the first line.
‘You are dealing with LIBs and Socialists here’
that said (believe it or not, truncated)
Are you familiar with the story of the 10 guys go to the same bar every night and the owner comes up with a plan that since the bill is the same every night and they are friends they should pay by order of ‘means’.
First two pay nothing and gradually rise to where #10(the most well off) is paying the brunt.
The owner wins the lottery and decides to take care of his GOOD customers and give them a percentage BACK on their daily/monthly bill.
So, customer one and two get a couple of bucks, customer 3 and 4 get a few bucks and moved to the ‘no pay’ zone and the ‘rebates’ are doled out with ALL getting a % which makes #10 get ‘hundreds’ back while the lowers get far less.
The other 9 take umbrage at #10, kick the hell out of him and next night he doesn’t show up to pay HIS PORTION OF THE BILL and all go berserk.
The purpose for my reply was to put the wealthy Americans in the game. If you watch the wealthiest in America you will notice they consort against the rest of us. They play both sides to keep the rest of us at bay and keep stealing the wealth in our country.
Please ready my reply to 25.
Sorry. Read my reply to 25. Thanks.
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