Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggests 70% tax on rich to fund Green New Deal

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has suggested taxing the rich as much as 70 percent to fund a sweeping economic and energy reform plan called the “Green New Deal.” “There’s an element where, yeah, people are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” the newly elected congresswoman of New York, a democratic socialist, told CBS host Anderson Cooper in an interview that’s set to air Sunday. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said taxes on the wealthy will have to be greatly increased in order to pay for the plan, which aims to reduce carbon emissions to zero and move toward 100% renewable energy within 12 years. “You look at our tax rates back in the ‘60s, and when you have a progressive tax rate system, your tax rate, let’s say from $0 to $75,000 maybe 10% or 15%, etc. But once you get to the tippie-tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn’t mean all $10 million dollars are taxed at an extremely high rate. But it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more,” she said, according to a clip released Friday.