Freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., suggested that the highest earners in America should pay tax rates of 60 to 70 percent to help pay to fight climate change.
“People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” Ocasio-Cortez told “60 Minutes” in an interview that will air Sunday. “[O]nce you get to, like, the tippy tops – on your 10 millionth dollar– sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. 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.”
Few rookie members of Congress have put such bold ideas on the national agenda and stirred up as much controversy as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who supports a #GreenNewDeal and says, “only radicals have changed this country.” https://t.co/2EBVY5OWLh pic.twitter.com/KihXYpC6eS
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 4, 2019
The youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress said the funds brought in from such a dramatic tax hike would pay for the “Green New Deal,” which is a proposed program that seeks to eliminate carbon emissions and the use of fossil fuels in the U.S. entirely within 12 years.
Ocasio-Cortez also suggested a progressive tax rate that would allow those who earn up to $75,000 a year pay a much lower rate of 10 to 15 percent in income tax.
She said she’s fine with being called a radical.
“Well, I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country,” Ocasio-Cortez said as she listed examples of radical changes in the past. “You know, if that’s what radical means, call me a radical.”
