Warren Says Wealth Tax Would Take ‘2 Cents’ From Billionaires, but Proposal Says Differently

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) center, addresses an audience during a campaign event in Exeter, N.H. on Nov. 11, 2019. Steven Senne/AP Photo

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a leading Democratic presidential contender, claimed that billionaires would barely pay any money under her proposed wealth tax while on the campaign trail on Nov. 11.

“Maybe you’ve heard, there are some billionaires who don’t like this. Yes, they’ve been interviewed on TV, I’ve noticed lately. So sad. So sad that they might have to pay two cents out of their bazillion dollars,” Warren told the crowd.

“So here’s the thing. And they say, you know, I worked hard. Yeah, unlike anyone else.”

Warren, 70, proposed an “Ultra-Millionaire Tax“ earlier this year that would place ”an annual 2 percent tax on every dollar of net worth above $50 million and a 3 percent tax on every dollar of net worth above $1 billion.”

If rich people try to leave the United States if the tax is passed, it would include a 40 percent “exit tax” on the net worth above $50 million for any American citizen who renounces their citizenship.

Warren upped the proposed tax on billionaires in her recently released Medicare for All plan. “Today, I’m going one step further. By asking billionaires to pitch in six cents on each dollar of net worth above $1 billion, we can raise an additional $1 trillion in revenue and further close the gap between what middle-class families pay as a percentage of their wealth and what the top one-tenth of one percent pay,” she wrote.

Warren also proposed multiple new taxes, including additional taxes on capital gains.

Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, was among those reacting to Warren’s statement about her tax.

“This is so bizarre. Sen. Warren keeps calling her proposed 6% wealth tax a *2%* tax for billionaires. Why repeatedly lie so brazenly about your own proposal, which is publicly available for anyone to read?” Riedl wrote.

“Not to mention that an additional 6% would be taken from that same pot of wealth each year, so the cumulative tax over time is far greater than 6%, (depending on investment returns, mark-to-market taxes, etc).”

Added economist Howard Wall: “Warren is lying about her own policy proposal, which is for a 6% tax on the wealth of billionaires and, I presume, bazillionaires. And her phrasing is odd. They wouldn’t pay 2 cents or 6 cents out of their bazillion. They would pay that much for each of their bazillion $.”