Over the weekend, we heard the Flavor-of-the-Month, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sandy to her college friends, AOC now to the media, talk about slamming a 70% marginal tax rate on people earning more than $10 million/year. This is supposed to fund her Green New Deal. A program, I might add, that we have already spent BILLIONS on during the Obama Administration.
Under AOC’s idea, anyone earning more than $10 million/year (which certainly includes many of her little friends in Hollywood), would have to send 70 cents of every dollar they make over $10 million to DC. She wants to earmark all that new revenue for her beloved Green New Deal. You know, the one that says 100% of electricity generation will come from renewable sources. Since fossil fuels and nuclear generate over 80% of our electricity today, I say good luck with that.
Frankly, the Green New Deal is nothing more than a larger than normal grab for the means of production than usual. How long do you think it will be before places like Texas are forced into rolling blackouts in order to “serve” the needs of the socialists in California?
Aside from the completely unrealistic goals of 100% electricity from 100% renewable sources, the math on this whole thing is seriously wrong. Even Democrat God, JFK, thought a 70% marginal tax rate was too much. And he started the moon landings, the Vietnam War, and the beginnings of the War on Poverty!
In short, if you tax the highest and best earners, they will make rational decisions like moving their money into areas that won’t generate economic growth, or moving it off shore, or hiding it altogether. No one wants to be dis-incentivized while earning a living!
But no, Boston University economics major, AOC, says that higher tax rates are the answer. I’m guessing she never heard of Arthur Laffer during her schooling.
She’s not the only over-educated useful idiot on Capitol Hill these days. [ASIDE—Is anyone else curious as to why she couldn’t get a decent job with a double major in economics and international politics from a “good” school? Or is that just me?]
Step aside AOC, we have another contender for dumbest economist in DC!
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Julian Castro!!!
The former San Antonio mayor (and twin brother of Representative Joaquin Castro—did I ever tell you about the time Julian had Joaquin stand in for him when he was running for mayor?), says that the top earnings MUST PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE!
He think’s a 90% rate would be appropriate.
I guess he hasn’t looked up the latest numbers from the IRS showing that the top 1% of earners pays almost 40% of the income tax. Hmmmm? And now he wants to make them pay more?
I’m almost surprised by this (not really). You see, Julian and Joaquin Castro did their undergraduate work at Stanford, home of the Hoover School of Business which includes leading libertarian economists like Thomas Sowell among its faculty. And they did their law schooling at Harvard, which used to have a decent economics department.
What? Did Julian have Joaquin stand in for him during Econ 101 at Stanford? Because that’s what it looks like.
I’m tempted to crowd source an effort to send copies of Economics For Dummies to every Democrat member of Congress. Really, we are talking less than 300 copies, here.
But given the utterly brilliant commentary by two of the best-educated leading lights, I’m not completely sure they can read.
Sandra Peterson
Follow me on Twitter @JanevonMises
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