De Blasio wants wealthiest Americans to pay combined top tax rate of 70%
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is officially peddling a proposal during his 2020 campaign similar to what has been floated by progressives in his party – including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – to tax the wealthiest Americans at a top combined rate of 70 percent.
During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, de Blasio described his tax plan as “the most aggressive” among the field of Democrats running for the party’s nomination.
For people that make over $2 million in income, de Blasio is proposing a combined top tax rate of 70 percent.
“I want working-class people and middle-class people to have a better life,” de Blasio said. “The rich have gotten richer for 40 years and paid less and less in taxes.”
De Blasio’s “Fair Share Tax Plan” includes the following proposals (among others):
- 1 percent tax on assets between $10 million and $25 million
- 2 percent tax on wealth of $25 million to $100 million
- 3 percent tax on households with assets in excess of $100 million
- 50 percent tax on household income between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000
- 60 percent tax on income in excess of $2,000,000
- When combined with state and local taxes and the Medicare tax, the total top tax rate on the richest 1 percent would be roughly 70 percent
According to de Blasio’s tax plan website, his comprehensive plan – including changes to capital gains – would raise $2.4 trillion over the course of a decade.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested imposing a 70 percent rate on those earning more than $10 million during an interview with “60 Minutes” to pay for the Green New Deal climate change plan.
If her proposal were implemented, Ocasio-Cortez and de Blasio’s own constituents would feel the pain: In New York, the top combined tax rate would skyrocket to about 82.7 percent, according to an analysis from Americans for Tax Reform.
As previously reported by FOX Business, experts have pointed to a myriad of flaws with implementing such a high top rate – including the fact that the wealthiest Americans have the ability to move, taking their tax revenue with them.
The New York City mayor also called out e-commerce giant Amazon as one of the corporations that pay no corporate taxes, which he indicated was unfair to the American people. Amazon maintains that it pays all of its tax obligations both at home and abroad.
De Blasio told Hannity he would like to see the corporate tax rate – which now sits at 21 percent – raised to a rate between 40 percent and 50 percent.
He also said President Trump was “wrong” to cap state and local tax deductions at $10,000 – New York is among a handful of blue states that have sued over the change.
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De Blasio has not yet qualified for the next round of Democratic debates next month.