Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was forced to play defense Tuesday during an exchange in the Democratic presidential debate on her signature wealth tax plan.
Warren has floated a wealth tax of 2 percent on net worth between $50 million and $1 billion, and 3 percent on net worth over $1 billion. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has also proposed a wealth tax.
{mosads}Now a leader in many polls, Warren suggested that candidates who don’t support a wealth tax are prioritizing protecting billionaires — a comment that drew criticism from others on stage.
Warren said that her wealth-tax plan would raise enough revenue to finance a number of social causes, including universal child care for children up to 5 years, universal pre-K, raising wages for child care workers and teachers, and tuition-free college.
“My question is not why do Bernie and I support a wealth tax, it’s why is it does everyone else on this stage think it is more important to protect billionaires than it is to invest in an entire generation of Americans,” she said.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who earlier spoke about his plans for raising the capital gains tax rate and eliminating tax breaks, then responded, “no one is supporting billionaires.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said she’s open to a wealth tax, but also said she wants to give Warren “a reality check.”
“No one on this stage wants to protect billionaires. Not even the billionaire wants to protect billionaires,” she said, referencing fellow candidate Tom Steyer. “We just have different approaches. Your idea is not the only idea.”
Klobuchar added that she wants to roll back much of President Trump’s 2017 tax cut law.
Warren then replied that taxing income won’t be as effective as taxing wealth “because the rich are not like you and me” and make their money off their accumulated wealth. She said that Democrats win when they “dream big and fight hard, not when we dream small and quit before we get started.”
Klobuchar responded that just because candidates have different ideas doesn’t mean they’re not fighting for regular people.
Businessman Andrew Yang criticized a wealth tax, saying such taxes make sense “in principle” but noting that other countries have repealed their wealth taxes. He said he thinks it would be a better idea to impose a value-added tax.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said that he thinks a wealth tax is “part of a solution” for income inequality but that policymakers also need to lift people up.
“Sometimes I think that Sen. Warren is more focused on being punitive or pitting some part of the country against the other,” he said.
Warren replied, “I’m really shocked at the notion that anyone thinks I’m punitive.”
She added that she doesn’t “have a beef with billionaires” but that the wealthy should pay more in taxes so that others have a chance at success.