Sen. Cory A. Booker of New Jersey on Thursday pushed back against Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s idea to tax the wealthy, saying the bureaucratic hoops it would create are much too cumbersome.
“Everybody on that stage wants to tax the super-wealthy,” Mr. Booker, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said on CNN’s “New Day.” “But we got to do it in a way that can work.”
“It is hard to evaluate. Other nations have tried this,” Mr. Booker said, echoing points he had made during Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Atlanta. “You literally have to assess every single year somebody’s wealth, from the paintings on their wall to the value of their farm.”
“People would be fighting that in court. It would take years to figure out, and they want to do this every single year,” he said. “There are better ways to do this to get revenue.”
He said he loves Ms. Warren and the attention behind her idea, but that it’s possible to do “fair and just” taxation.
Ms. Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, on Wednesday said that a wealth tax is not about punishing anyone and that the results could be unifying.
She had proposed a 2% annual tax on assets of more than $50 million, with an additional 1% tax on wealth of more than $1 billion.
She recently suggested doubling the wealth tax for billionaires from 3% to 6% as part of a plan to pay for her “Medicare for All” health insurance plan.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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