Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Please Test Before Implementing
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 2018 (attribution: Composemi, presented at: WindermereSun.com)
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
Taxing the rich is a fairly popular talking point for progressives. But we have to remember it’s not as simple as some people try to make it, in the video “Sam Seaborn on Taxing the Rich“, below:
A rising star in the U.S. political arena, an American politician, activist, and community organizer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is bringing the moral courage and enthusiastic energy needed in American politics. A member of the Democratic Party, she has been the U.S. Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district since January 3, 2019. At age 29, she is the youngest woman to serve in Congress in the history of the United States.
Excerpt from wikipedia, in italics, below:
Ocasio-Cortez was the first person since 2004 to challenge the Democratic Caucus Chair, Joe Crowley, in the Democratic primary. She faced a significant financial disadvantage, but said, “You can’t really beat big money with more money. You have to beat them with a totally different game.” Nearly 75% of her donations were small individual contributions, while less than one percent of Crowley’s contributions were.[27] The Ocasio-Cortez campaign spent $194,000 to the Crowley campaign’s $3.4 million.[40]
Ocasio-Cortez is a self-described democratic socialist.[106] She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.[10] She supports progressive policies such as Medicare for All, a job guarantee,[107]tuition-free public college, ending the privatization of prisons, and enacting gun-control policies.[108]
Ocasio-Cortez proposed introducing a marginal tax as high as 70% on income above $10 million to pay for the “Green New Deal.” The Washington Post asked tax experts to calculate the revenue such a rate would bring in. They concluded that it would bring in $720 billion per decade, while a wealth tax on the top 1 percent similar to those in Europe would bring in $3 trillion per decade and doubling income taxes on the top 1 percent would bring in $3 trillion per decade.[109][110]
I am all in favor of green deals, Medicare for all, and would be supportive of measures to eliminate national debt problem, but keep in mind that the above estimates are not including the consideration of potential exodus of the wealthy from country with heavy taxes. For example, in 2016 alone, some 12,000 millionaires emigrated from France (highest outflow in the world) due to the French wealth tax currently applying to personal assets over 1.3 million euros. Therefore, it would be difficult to expect continued tax revenues from these people. It might be a good idea to experiment on a small segment of the population to find out what type of result government or country would end up getting before implementing these measures. It would be good to determine the optimal tax rate, rate at which would maximize government’s revenue without losing its most productive segment of the population. Historically, 37% has been cited in many researches as the optimal tax rate. But it is possible that people may be willing to pay a bit more these days to help to solve the national debt problem. Again, I reiterate, we need to experiment and research before implementing actual rate or measures.
Watch CNBC’s Editor-at-Large, John Harwood, join Ali Velshi to dig into a new tax proposal from New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and look at the biggest criticisms of it, in the video “Why Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s Tax Plan Might Not Work, Velshi & Ruhle, MSNBC“, below:
Furthermore, according to Professor Anthony Davies in the video below, if considering not only the tax people pay to the federal government but also what they get from the federal government, the actual net payers of taxes are from only the top 40% of the American population. Detailed explanations, below, in the video “10 Myths About Government Debt“:
Professor Anthony Davies suggests the ways to stop the bleeding and prevents the national debt problem getting worse, reaching a balanced federal budget in 5 years by:
- Cut all spending by 10% this year-no exceptions
- Holding spending constant for 4 years-don’t even adjust for inflation
- At the end of year 5, the budget will be balanced
- Thereafter, restrict spending increases to the growth in real GDP
According to a Bloomberg report based on 2016 tax returns, the top 1% of the tax payers are already paying greater share of the income taxes, 37.3%, than the bottom 90%, in the video “Ocasio-Cortez suggests 60 to 70 percent tax rate for the rich to pay for a ‘Green New Deal’“, below:
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
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