AMES, Iowa — Elizabeth Warren stood by her claim that she can stretch her so-called “wealth tax” to cover her litany of policy proposals.
The Massachusetts senator and 2020 White House hopeful, whose mantra’s become, “I have a plan for that,” on Monday evening emphasized her idea to tax households with net worths of more than $50 million at 2% and billionaire households at 3%.
“I just want you all to think about the math on that. I know you didn’t come here today thinking you were going to have to do a math problem, but I want you to think about that: two cents on fortunes above $50 million. It’s about 70,000 fortunes in this country. Two cents and we provide the opportunity to invest in every single person from an entire generation. That is structural change in the economy,” Warren, 70, told a crowd of about 1,200 at Iowa State University in Ames.
The former Harvard Law School professor and driving force behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had listed some of her platforms, including universal childcare, free college, and tuition debt forgiveness.
“All of that, and I’m still riding on the same two cents, ” she said.
Warren, first elected to the Senate in 2012, told reporters in Des Moines on Monday afternoon “the astonishing part is how much wealth is concentrated at the top.”
“Do the math. It clearly is enough. We have made very conservative estimates on the revenue. I have consulted with tax experts about it, with economists about it, and the money is there,” she said. “It’s a statement about how badly broken our economic system is right now.”
Warren’s unveiling Monday of an $800 billion education plan drew questions over whether she’s already exhausted the $2.75 trillion her “wealth tax” is projected to earn over a decade.
[Related: Elizabeth Warren says she’ll deliver plan to fund ‘Medicare for all’]
