Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist pushed back on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) idea to raise the marginal tax rate to 70 percent on income above $10 million, saying in an interview that aired Monday on “Rising” that no country has such a tax rate.
“What Congresswoman Cortez says is we should do like Norway. Oh yeah? Take a look at the percentage that middle-income people in Norway pay in taxes,” Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball last week.
“No country in the world has a 70 percent top rate. Many of them used to,” he continued.
“Under [former President] Eisenhower, there’s a top rate of 90. [Former President] John F. Kennedy took it from 90 to 70, and you had strong economic growth through the ’60s because Kennedy said we need to take these rates down, they’re killing growth,” he said.
Sweden has a 69.7 percent tax rate on salaries higher than $79,000, according to Bloomberg.
Ocasio-Cortez first floated the idea, which her spokesman has called “more conceptual” than specific, in a “60 Minutes” interview earlier this month.
“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 maybe 10 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,” she said, adding that the rate wouldn’t hit most Americans.
The freshman congresswoman said the idea could help fund a “Green New Deal,” a proposal aimed at taking action on climate change.
Her comments have caused backlash from various conservatives but have sparked debate within the Democratic Party.
— Julia Manchester
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