Pushing back against skeptics
of taxing the wealthy to pay for efforts to avert climate catastrophe, she
says, "I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this
country."
In the second video featuring Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to
make headlines in less than 24 hours, the first-term congresswoman
called for major systemic changes to address the climate crisis and suggested
taxing ultra wealthy Americans around 70 percent to help pay for it—declaring,
"if that's what radical means, call me a radical."
The preview of Anderson
Cooper's forthcoming interview with Ocasio-Cortez, which is set to air at 7pm
ET Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes," quickly caught the attention of
both advocates and critics of implementing a progressive taxation scheme that,
as she put, could force the rich "to start paying their fair share in
taxes."
According
to CBS News, in the interview Ocasio-Cortez charges that hiking taxes
on the very rich could help pay for the Green New Deal—an
increasingly popular proposal among the American public and Democrats in
Congress that would pair efforts to curb anthropogenic global warming with
policies to create a more just economy.
A foundational goal of the
Green New Deal championed by
Ocasio-Cortez is fully eliminating fossil fuels and carbon emissions within the
next 12 years, in line with recent
demands from international climate scientists. "It's going to
require a lot of rapid change that we don't even conceive as possible right
now," she told Cooper, but "what is the problem with trying to push
our technological capacities to the furthest extent possible?"
As Ocasio-Cortez pointed out:
You know, you look at our tax
rates back in the '60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your
tax rate, you know, let's say, from zero to $75,000 may be ten percent or 15
percent, et cetera. But once 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.
After Cooper suggested that
such a plan is considered "radical" in the context of the current
U.S. political system, she responded: "I think that it only has ever been
radicals that have changed this country. Abraham Lincoln made the radical
decision to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made
the radical decision to embark on establishing programs like Social Security.
That is radical."
Expanding on her remarks in
a tweet that
included the video on Friday morning, she added: "Sometimes we take for
granted exactly how radical ideas like Social Security, the VA, and public
schooling really are: that we will care for our elders, provide healthcare, and
educate *all* children in America free of cost at the point of service."
In a Twitter thread, Michael
Linden, a Roosevelt Institute fellow who also serves as managing director of
policy and research at the Hub Project, welcomed Ocasio-Cortez's tax
suggestions, breaking down why she is "on very solid ground here," as
"there is a lot of evidence that from an economic and fiscal perspective,
we'd be way better off with top rates approaching 70 [percent]."
"The basic question we
should ask: Will the investment financed by the higher tax rates generate more
good than the lower rate would?" Linden posed. His conclusion? Yes,
raising taxes on the rich would have a net positive impact. As he put it,
"There will be many on the right and in the media who will mock @AOC for
calling for tax rates at 60 or 70, but they're the ones who are economically illiterate.
They're basing their view on an outdated and ideological understanding of
taxation, not on the best research."
Responding to Politico's
reporting on the video, John Iadarola of The Young Turks offered an
alternative headline on Twitter, acknowledging that Ocasio-Cortez's proposal is
the "same top tax rate U.S. had for literally decades during a time of
unprecedented, historic growth."
Others responded to Cooper's
apparent surprise at the congresswoman's so-called radical suggestions by
noting that he is the son of fashion designer and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, a
descendant of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. While Cooper has said,
"I don't believe in inheriting money," Town & Country reported in
2017 that independent of his family fortune, he makes "$11 million a year
and is worth about $100 million."
As for the other video that provoked recent
headlines—which shows Ocasio-Cortez dancing on a rooftop as a Boston University
student, borrowing moves from the famous '80s film The Breakfast Club—the
congresswoman responded early
Friday afternoon to the failed right-wing effort to embarrass her:
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