Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has an excellent idea to take on concentrated wealth *and* the climate crisis: tax the rich.
She's calling for higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires, asking them to pay up to 70% on incomes above $10 million. She wants some of that money to help support the Green New Deal to address the climate crisis.1
She's already getting attacked by corporate Democrats for her plan. Let's show her that you've got her back.
Stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Add your name to support her plan to tax the rich and build a Green New Deal!
There's really nothing radical about her proposal. Until Ronald Reagan became president, tax rates on the rich were 70%. During the 1950s, an unprecedented era of economic growth in the United States, the rich paid more than 90%. This was considered normal and reasonable.2
When the rich paid high taxes, we didn't have a small number of people controlling so much money. The top 1% had less political power, and we had less inequality.
Ever since Reagan slashed taxes for the rich starting in 1981, inequality and poverty have skyrocketed. And governments have cut spending on infrastructure, schools, health care, and more.
Now we face a climate crisis, and we cannot solve it without a huge amount of new public spending on renewable energy. Much of it will be paid for the same way we funded the original New Deal, won World War II, and put humans on the moon: with deficits. That's good. We oppose Congress' “pay as you go” rules for this very reason.
High tax rates on the rich supported those innovative fiscal policies and helped break up concentrated power and wealth. They were also a kind of campaign finance reform, leaving the rich with less money to oppose progressive ideas. The Koch brothers make much of their money from oil. Let's tax it and use it for the public good rather than let them spend it to elect right-wing politicians.
We have to solve the climate crisis. We also have to solve the crisis of wealth and political power being concentrated in the hands of a few. Let's do something that can help solve both at the same time.
Sign the petition: Stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to tax the rich, reduce inequality, and help make a Green New Deal a reality.
Sources:
1. Politico, "Ocasio-Cortez floats 70 percent tax on the super wealthy to fund Green New Deal," January 4, 2019.
2. New York, "Ocasio-Cortez's 70 Percent Top Tax Rate Is a Moderate, Evidence-Based Policy," January 4, 2019.