National Debt Clock manager calls for higher taxes on the rich

The manager of the National Debt Clock is arguing that Congress should raise taxes on wealthy individuals.

“I support higher taxes on people like me,” Douglas Durst said in an interview with The Washington Post published Monday. “I think America has more of a revenue problem than a spending problem.”

{mosads}Durst’s father, real estate magnate Seymour Durst, first installed the National Debt Clock in 1989 on a building near New York City’s Times Square. The clock is currently in a nearby location. 

Seymour Durst died in 1995. Douglas Durst, like his father, has been been frequent donors to Democrats, the Post reported.

Over the years, including at the 2012 Republican National Convention, Republicans have used versions of the clock to highlight the debt as a problem. 

But Democrats in recent months have been arguing that President Trump and congressional Republicans are not fiscally responsible because they enacted a $1.5 trillion tax-cut bill last year and are interested in pursuing additional tax cuts without offsets.

Durst criticized the tax law in his interview with the Post.

“The tax cut was an overall step in the wrong direction. Nobody who has any background in economics thought the tax bill was a good idea,” he said.

The Treasury Department currently puts the national debt at about $21.4 trillion.