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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tax Reform |
A: We hear from Fox News on this, "They want to take all your money." But a 70% marginal tax rate is not on all your income. It's on your ten-millionth-and-one dollar. So after you make $10 million in one year, your dollars after that start to get progressively taxed at a much higher rate. And really, that is the tax answer to the question of "At what level are we really just living in excess?" and "Do we want to live in a city where billionaires have their own personal helipads while people work 8-hour weeks and can't feed their kids?"
Q: And this kind of tax rate was the norm up until the early 1980s?
A: It was. Under the Republican administration of Dwight Eisenhower, we had 90% marginal tax rates.
Q: But I want to point out, "She's a socialist; she wants 70% tax rates"--those are both accurate, right?
A: Yeah, I guess so, but a Democratic socialist, that's very different.
Project Vote Smart inferred whether candidates agree or disagree with the statement, 'Budget: In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?' PVS self-description: "The Political Courage Test provides voters with positions on key issues. Historically, candidates have failed to complete our test due to the advice they receive from their advisors and out of fear of negative attack ads."