Bloomberg's 'hypocritical' tax plan will 'make things worse': Art Laffer
Former NYC mayor looks to roll back Trump tax cuts, toughen estate tax
Former Reagan economic adviser Art Laffer discusses 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg and calls him hypocritical.
When it comes to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's tax plans, Former Reagan economist Art Laffer believes they are contradictory to how Bloomberg acted while mayor, calling them "hypocritical the whole way through."
"I think people really would like to see what his tax returns look like in March," Laffer noted during FOX Business' "After the Bell" on Wednesday. "I think he promised to release his tax returns, and I wonder if he's going to deny all the tax favors he himself used and now won't let anyone else use in the future."
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Like his rival Democratic presidential candidates, Bloomberg would reverse President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, pushing back the top rate on high earners to 39.6 percent, where it sat before Republicans reduced it to 37 percent. He would also toughen the estate tax.
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"You can't tax an economy into prosperity, and if he were to win, I think the market would crash and I think the economy would come tumbling down after it," Laffer told FOX Business' Melissa Francis.
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Bloomberg's tax plan is multifaceted, but the billionaire unveiled a tax plan earlier in February that would raise an estimated $5 trillion in revenue from new levies on corporations and wealthy Americans, becoming the latest 2020 contender to call for expansive hikes on the rich.
The former New York City mayor, one of the richest people in the world, introduced a slew of tax increases, many of which would almost certainly raise his own tax bill. That includes a 5 percent tax on incomes over $5 million a year. Bloomberg is worth an estimated $60.2 billion, according to Forbes.
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Bloomberg also wants to tax capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income for individuals who are worth more than $1 million. On businesses, he would hike the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, up from the current 21 percent but still falling short of the 35 percent rate where it sat during the Obama administration.
He would tighten the tax code in order to close loopholes, such as the pass-through 20 percent deduction that allows rich taxpayers to pay less and the like-kind provision that allows real estate investors to defer tax payments indefinitely.
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Money generated from the plan, which his campaign said would impact less than 0.1 percent of taxpayers, would fund several of his initiatives, including his health care, education, climate change and $1 trillion infrastructure plans.
Laffer believes Bloomberg's tax plans "will do nothing but make things worse."
FOX Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report.