Progressive Rep. Alexandria Oasio-Cortez proposed taxing the wealthy up to 70 percent to pay for her climate change reforms.
In an interview with Anderson Cooper for “60 Minutes,” set to air on Sunday, the newly-sworn in representative said the plan would require something similar to tax rates in the 1960s.
“It’s going to require a lot of rapid change that we don’t even conceive as possible right now,” she said. “There’s an element where yeah, people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez argued this bracket wouldn’t be for all income, but instead the rates would increase with additional levels of income.
“Once you get to the tippy tops, on your $10 millionth, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60% or 70%,” she said. “That doesn’t mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate. But it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more.”
Mr. Cooper called her plan “radical,” a label the progressive lighting rod enthusiastically embraced.
“I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “Yeah, if that’s what radical means, call me a radical.”
On 60 minutes, @AOC[1] calls for raising taxes up to “60 or 70 percent” for highest earners
“People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes” pic.twitter.com/onAkHYMAqX[2]...
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 4, 2019[3]