Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 70% marginal tax rate isn’t radical: here’s why.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: she’s known as Alexandria the Great to Democrats across the country (myself included), the Devil Incarnate to right wing politicians, and simply “Congresswoman” to Mark Zuckerberg.

AOC has brought up a 70% marginal tax rate on the ultra-rich for quite some time now, and it’s been criticized as being radical; but those who do criticize the idea forgot that it’s a marginal tax on America’s ultra-rich.

What Ocasio-Cortez is proposing is this: if someone’s annual income is over $10 million, they shouldn’t be taxed in the same way someone making $600,000 would. A common misconception about the policy is that all of your income would be taxed at 70%, which isn’t the case. For every dollar you make after $10 million, that number is taxed at 70%. The first $10 million is still taxed at 37%. AOC’s plan would only affect 16,000 Americans but if their income after $10 million is taxed at 70%, the entire country would have free health care. Not only that, but a study conducted by the Harvard School of Common Sense shows that taxing the ultra-wealthy decreases income inequality. Seems pretty fair, right? I mean, there’s no possible way anyone could refute something that would provide every United States citizen free health care and encourage social mobility.

Well, *sad_trombone.mp4*, there’s a reason why I’m writing this article. Many well-known Republicans such as Grover Norquist, Founder of Americans for Tax Reform, have actually compared the 70% tax rate to slavery.

Conservatives argue that by “aggressively taxing the country’s greatest success stories”, Americans would loose all drive and incentive to become the next Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos and thus our economy would suffer.

However, there is no evidence that slashing taxes for the rich leads to an increase in economic growth. There is, however, research that goes to show that taxing the ultra-rich leads to a decrease in income inequality. So even if we go with a logos-minded mindset of many conservatives, the 70% marginal tax rate makes sense. It’s also important to remember that this policy is a marginal tax rate and only affects the ultra-rich: two things that many who have argued against the policy tend to forget.

Here’s where things get even more interesting: in 1953, the top tax rate was 91 percent, so it AOC wanting billionaires to pay 70% isn’t at all historic or radical by any stretch. And the 91% tax rate was set by 34th president Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican president!

And finally, the all-time favorite Republicans: “AOC is trying to turn our country into a second Venezuela!”. And while Fox News tries to paint AOC as being a crazy socialist, the thing they forget is that while there is Venezuela and Cuba, there are also Scandinavian welfare states such as Norway who’s been providing free health care and education to their citizens. And the United States has actually been a welfare state since 1935. President Franklin D. Roosevelt backed the idea of federal aid for poor children and other dependent persons, and by 1935, a national welfare system had been established for the first time in American history. We just haven’t been doing enough, and AOC’s proposal is a step in the right direction. Her reasoning can be summed up with this:

“… and really what (the 70% marginal rate) is… the tax interpretation to the one answer to the question of, at what level are we really just living in excess, and what kind of city do we want to live in? For example, do we want to live in a city where billionaires have their own personal Uber helipads… in the same city and society as people who are working eighty-hour weeks and can’t feed their kids?”

— Ocasio-Cortez on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

In conclusion, the Queen of Clapback isn’t only fighting for working class people, she’s fighting for all people; because if those with an income over $10 million pay the proposed marginal tax rate, they get free health care too, just like those Americans who are working eighty-hour weeks trying to provide for their family. Keep fighting, AOC! ✌️