Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax will weaken the economy and 'kill jobs,' Larry Kudlow warns
The former top Trump economic adviser argues taxing wealth really is 'taxing investment'
Larry Kudlow, former top economic adviser to Donald Trump, warned on Wednesday that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's proposed wealth tax will weaken the economy and “kill jobs.”
“It’s going to mean higher taxes for everybody and it’s going to weaken the economy and going to kill jobs, no question about it,” Kudlow told “Mornings with Maria.”
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Warren, D-Mass., plans to reignite calls for a wealth tax targeting the nation’s richest individuals and families.
Warren’s office said the progressive Democrat plans to introduce legislation calling for a wealth tax on fortunes valued at more than $50 million as she joins the Senate Finance Committee in the 117th Congress.
As opposed to taxes levied on income and payrolls, a wealth tax would target the value of accumulated assets owned by rich Americans – or their net worth. The idea, generally, is to combat growing economic inequality, creating a more level playing field among the wealthy and middle classes by adjusting the tax system.
During her campaign for the presidency, Warren introduced a wealth tax known as her “ultra-millionaire tax,” and the pending proposal is expected to follow roughly the same parameters, the senator’s office said.
The wealth tax would apply to those with more than $50 million in assets. The tax would be equal to 2%, but would rise for those who have assets valued at more than $1 billion. Warren’s initial proposal called for the surtax to rise to 3% -- though she later raised the top rate to 6%.
In a statement on Tuesday, Warren’s office did not specifically say what rate would be applied to fortunes over $1 billion, saying simply there would be “an additional surtax on every dollar of wealth over $1 billion.”
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Kudlow acknowledged on Wednesday that he doesn’t “know how far that’s going to go,” but pointed to the Biden platform and his tax plan.
President Biden has said the wealthy should pay more in taxes, and that the tax code should be more progressive and equitable. That includes eliminating loopholes that favor the rich and large corporations.
“They’re going to double the capital gains tax, increase the tax on upper-end successful earners,” Kudlow said of the Biden administration. “They’re going to tax energy to death, in fact, they’re going to wreck the whole energy sector and yes a wealth tax was in their program.”
He then pointed out that if “you’re taxing wealth, you’re really taxing investment.”
“Those people with the upper end are essentially investors,” Kudlow explained. “They plant the seeds that grow into fruitful economies.”
“Investment is the working person’s best friend,” he added.
Kudlow then pointed to the Trump tax cuts, saying “if you look carefully at the Trump tax cuts, particularly the business tax cuts, but also individual tax cuts, it was precisely the middle income and the lower incomes who benefitted the most, substantially more than the upper income.”
“If you tax the upper income, you’re going to damage productivity, investment, real wages will fall and jobs will fall so this is a very negative thing,” he continued. “The far left loves this stuff, class warfare and all the rest of it. Guess what? It doesn’t work.”
Kudlow went on to say that he believes that Biden may be “the most left-wing president we have ever seen.”
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He explained that he made that assessment based on Biden’s first couple of weeks in office and all of the executive orders he signed, including his “actions on spending and taxing and regulating, on immigration and fossil fuels and other cultural issues.”
“I don’t know whether he [Biden] believes this stuff,” Kudlow said. “I don’t know whether he’s an empty vessel for the far left wing of his party, but they are moving in the wrong direction from day one.”
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Fox Business’ Brittany De Lea contributed to this report.