Editors at Issues and Insights write about US Rep. Ro Khanna’s telling admission about a new tax proposal.
It took less time than we would have imagined, but proponents of the “billionaire wealth tax” have already given the game away.
Anyone who knows any history about taxes knows that the left always uses “tax the rich” as a cover to raise taxes on the middle class. Because, as Willy Sutton observed in another context, that’s where the money is.
But we were surprised to see Rep. Ro Khanna admit as much, even before he and his socialist pals get their coveted wealth tax on the boards.
“The tax should not stop at billionaires,” he wrote on his Substack. “The tax has to reach all fortunes $50 million and up.”
So why is the bill he sponsored along with Sen. Bernie Sanders called the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act”?
Because that’s how it always goes with new taxes.
Take the experience in Europe, where 14 countries tried a wealth tax, after which 11 ditched the idea because it didn’t raise much money. …
… The European wealth taxes that stayed rich-only — France, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Denmark — were repealed as revenue duds. The ones that survived did so by reaching the middle class … Norway’s kicks in at around $160,000 of net worth. The Netherlands taxes deemed returns on assets above roughly €57,000. Swiss cantons start in the low six figures. The slippery slope is quite literally the only way these things ‘work.’
But you don’t need to look abroad. Democrats have already been pushing wealth taxes that reach far more than “billionaires.” When Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced her wealth tax in 2019, it kicked in at $50 million. That threshold has already been reduced because, while the number hasn’t changed in seven years, Bidenflation has reduced the inflation-adjusted threshold to $39 million.
Then there’s Joe Biden’s 2022 “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax,” which kicked in at $100 million.
