Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's tax plan would supply tens of billions of dollars, but how much would it cost Americans?
- New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has touted a plan that would tax the richest Americans 60-70%.
- The additional funds gathered from the taxes would contribute to a massive overhaul plan that aims to reduce the country's carbon emissions to zero and eliminate fossil fuels in 10 years.
- The newly elected lawmaker has been targeted by criticism for the marginal tax rate, which would affect Americans who are making more than $10 million a year.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has touted a plan that would tax multimillionaire Americans 60-70% to fund massive energy and infrastructure overhauls related to a plan that aims to reduce the country's carbon emissions to zero and eliminate fossil fuels in 10 years.
The New York's representative said in a "60 Minutes" interview set to air Sunday that a new marginal tax rate would affect Americans making more than $10 million to help pay for the "Green New Deal."
"Once you get to the tippy-tops, on your $10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 percent or 70 percent," Ocasio-Cortez said. "That doesn't mean all $10 million dollars are taxed at an extremely high rate. But it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more."
Ocasio-Cortez pointed to past American policies that implemented similar rates under administrations of both parties.
Policies under former President Dwight Eisenhower reached 90% in the 1950s. Through the administrations of presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the rate sat at 70%. President Ronald Reagan then sliced the top rate to 50% in the early 1980s before it eventually fell to 38% in 1986.
Analysis from The Washington Post found that if taxes on the approximately 16,000 Americans who earned more than $10 million in 2016 was raised from the 39.6% they paid that year to 70%, the federal government would earn an extra $72 billion each year.
For comparison, those additional gains are enough to tackle other moves touted by Ocasio-Cortez, including half of the $1.4 trillion of US student loan debt.
The plan's steep figure of 70% has been targeted by critics who express concern for Americans. Ocasio-Cortez tangled with House minority whip Steve Scalise on Twitter Saturday, who she questioned for not knowing "how marginal tax rates work."
Though she hasn't specified a cost for the plan, Ocasio-Cortez described the Green New deal as an "ambitious," all-encompassing movement towards cleaner energy across the country.
"The Green New Deal we are proposing will be similar in scale to the mobilization efforts seen in World War II or the Marshall Plan," she told the Huffington Post. "We must again invest in the development, manufacturing, deployment, and distribution of energy, but this time green energy."