The Atlantic

How to Soak the Rich

Democratic 2020 candidates are already discussing how to make a more progressive tax code. What’s the best way?
Source: Brian Snyder / Reuters

With the 2020 primary already under way and the House back in Democratic hands, the left has proposed a number of spending programs aimed at ending poverty and boosting the middle class: a jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal, a massive expansion of the earned-income tax credit, Medicare for All, a universal child allowance, and on and on. Democrats do not want to talk about how to pay for each and every penny of such proposals. But it is clear they intend to raise more money from the rich, and are now pushing policies that would do just that.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to raise the top marginal income-tax rate to 70 percent; for every dollar a person earns over $10 million, Ocasio-Cortez suggests, he should be left with 30 cents. Senator Bernie Sanders, a likely 2020 candidate, wants to expand the . And Senator Elizabeth Warren, a definite 2020 candidate, has proposed an annual , taking 2 percent of fortunes over $50 million and an additional 1 percent of fortunes over $1 billion.

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