High Tax Democrats 2020

  • Feb. 29. 2020: Joe Biden said: “If you elect me, your taxes are going to be raised, not cut, if you benefited from that.
  • Feb. 27, 2020: Amy Klobuchar said: “Taking the capital gains rate and putting it closer to the personal income tax rate, brings in something like $500 billion.
  • Feb 25, 2020: Amy Klobuchar said: “Well, let me tell you how many nickels and dimes we’re talking about. Nearly $60 trillion. Do you know how much that is for all of his programs? That is three times the American economy– not the federal government, the entire American economy,” when talking about the cost of Bernie Sanders’s proposals.
  • Feb 24, 2020: Bernie Sanders said

    Anderson Cooper: Do you have– a price tag for all of these things?

    Sanders: No, i don’t. we try to– no, you mentioned making public colleges and universities tuition free and canceling all student debt, that’s correct. That’s what I want to do. we pay for that through a modest tax on wall street speculation.

  • Feb. 20, 2020: Joe Biden said: “There’s an overwhelming need to do something that’s rational and Bernie still hasn’t answered the question. How much is it going to cost? Who’s going to pay for it? He talks about the savings. In Vermont they passed the affordable — Medicare for All. It doubled the income tax of the state. It put a 14% tax on withholding tax, and they got rid of it. The idea that this can be done quickly is simply not true. Simply not true.”
  • Feb. 19, 2020: Pete Buttigieg said: “I‘m actually less concerned about the lack of transparency on Sanders’ personal health than I am about the lack of transparency on how to pay for his health care plan. Since he said that it’s impossible to even know how much it’s going to cost. And even after raising taxes on everybody making $29,000, there is still a multi-trillion dollar hole. Matter of fact, if you add up his policies altogether, they come to $50 trillion. He’s only explained $25 trillion worth of revenue.
  • Feb. 19, 2020: Joe Biden said: “The idea that we have a tax rate for corporate America at 21% is ridiculous. It should be 28 percent.” 
  • Feb. 12, 2020: Pete Buttigieg said: “When you do the math on [Sanders] proposals, there’s a $25 trillion hole, even after his tax increase on the middle class. At $25 trillion, that’s bigger than the entire size of the American economy.
  • Feb. 7, 2020: Joe Biden said: “I’m going to raise the capital gains rate so that you pay capital gains at what your tax rate is.”
  • Jan. 24, 2020: Bernie Sanders said that “nobody knows” how much his Medicare for All plan would cost, despite stating that it would be paid for by American taxpayers. When pressed on the issue, Sanders said that he would “of course” propose a plan to the American people and not tell them how much it would cost.
  • Feb. 7, 2020: Amy Klobuchar said: “We can put a 2 cents per milligrams tax on opioids that brings in another $40 billion.”
  • Feb. 7, 2020: Amy Klobuchar said: “It’s bringing tobacco clean power rules, gas standards and introducing legislation to put a price on carbon.”
  • Jan. 19, 2020: Bernie Sanders said “nobody knows” how much his Medicare for All plan costs.
  • Jan. 17, 2020: Pete Buttigieg said: “rollback wholesale of the Trump tax cuts with a special focus on what’s going on in the corporate-rate tax cut.”
  • Jan. 15, 2020: CNN released an article stating that Bernie Sanders would repeal the TCJA.
  • Jan. 14, 2020: Joe Biden criticized the Medicare for All plan that is being proposed by Sanders, as he said: “We need to be candid with voters, I think we have to tell them what we’re going to do and what it will cost. A 4% tax on income over $24,000 doesn’t even come close to paying for between $30 and some estimates $40 trillion over ten years. That’s doubling the entire federal budget a year.
  • Jan. 10, 2020: Pete Buttigieg released an “infrastructure” plan which would repeal the entire TCJA.
  • Dec. 30, 2019: Elizabeth Warren said: “I’m still with Bernie. We’re still there on Medicare for All.”
  • Dec. 30, 2019: Pete Buttigieg said: “We gotta roll back the Trump tax cuts for corporations that benefited the wealthy … we take those steps, common sense steps, fixing capital gains so that wealth is taxed in a way that is comparable to how work is taxed.”
  • Dec. 19, 2019: Pete Buttigieg said: “And it’s why I insist we act with a carbon tax and dividend with massive increases in renewable research on renewable energy storage and carbon storage.
  • Dec. 9, 2019: Joe Biden criticized Elizabeth Warren, saying “You’re going to have to raise taxes on the middle class.”
  • Dec. 7, 2019: Bernie Sanders said“Now, healthcare is not free. And nobody in this room would believe me if I said I could snap my fingers and give everybody qualify healthcare that doesn’t cost you anything, of course it’s going to cost you something.”
  • Dec. 6, 2019: Joe Biden said: “We should charge people the same tax for their capital gains as their tax rate is. And I think we should raise the tax rate back to, for example, I take it back to where it was before it was reduced. It could go higher, but at 39.5%, 40% basically if you have that as the capital gains, that raises, I brought along, I’m not going to bore you with it, but you’ve seen it, I brought along a graph is how much money each of these things raise.”

  • Nov. 20, 2019: Cory Booker said“I would tax capital gains like normal income.”

  • Nov. 9, 2019: Elizabeth Warren said: “Medicare for All, as I put this together, covers everyone, regardless of immigration status.”

  • Nov. 6, 2019: Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare for All plan repeals the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

  • Nov. 2, 2019: Bernie Sanders criticized Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare for All plan, stating: “Senator Warren is placing what you might call an employer ‘head tax’ of $9,500 on every employer who employs more than 60 people, and that means for that employer to hire a new person would cost an additional $9,500 — paying somebody $30–$40,000. Yeah, it’s a big chunk. I think that would probably have a very negative impact on creating those jobs or providing wages, increased wages of benefits for those workers,”

  • Nov. 2, 2019: Elizabeth Warren lied to a reporter about her Medicare for All plan, saying: “It doesn’t raise taxes on anybody but billionaires.”

  • Nov. 1, 2019: Joe Biden criticized Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare for All plan, saying: “She’s making it up. Nobody thinks it’s $20 trillion. It’s between 30 and $40 trillion. Every major independent study that’s gone out there, that’s taken a look at this — there’s no way — even Bernie who talks about the need to raise middle class taxes. He can’t even meet the cost of it.

  • Oct. 31, 2019: Joe Biden slammed Medicare for All, saying: “It is totally unrealistic and can’t be done.”

  • Oct. 30, 2019: Elizabeth Warren said that two million lost jobs from Medicare for All is “part of the cost issue.”

  • October 24, 2019: Joe Biden said: “[I]’m going to double their capital gains [tax rate].”
  • October 24, 2019: Joe Biden said: “So reduce the corporate tax cut, the tax payment to 20%? It needed to be reduced, but if we raise it back up to 28%, it was 39%, we can raise houndreds of billions of dollars.”
  • October 23, 2019: Joe Biden said“[Corporations] don’t need their tax cut reduced to 20 percent, it should be raised back to 28 percent.”
  • October 23, 2019: Joe Biden said: “So every single solitary person, their capital gains are going to be treated like real income and they are going to pay 40 percent on their capital gains tax.”
  • October 20. 2019: Pete Buttigieg said on Meet the Press that he would bring the corporate tax rate back to 35% if elected.
  • October 18, 2019: Elizabeth Warren refused to directly answer a reporter’s question if the middle class would pay more in taxes under her Medicare for All plan.
  • Oct. 17, 2019: Andrew Yang criticized Elizabeth Warren, stating that her wealth tax proposal would have “massive implementation problems.”
  • October 15, 2019: Elizabeth Warren dodged the middle class tax question a total of 6 times during and after the CNN/New York Times Democratic debate.
  • October 15, 2019: Amy Klobuchar said“I would repeal significant portions of that tax bill that helped the rich, including what [Trump] did with the corporate tax rate.”
  • October 3, 2019: Elizabeth Warren proposed a lobbying tax.
  • September 27, 2019: Joe Biden siad: “I’m gonna double the capital gains rate to 40 percent.”
  • September 26, 2019: Bernie Sanders saidIs healthcare free? No, it is not. So what we do is exempt the first $29,000 of a person’s income. You make less $29,000, you pay nothing in taxes. Above that, in a progressive way, with the wealthiest people paying the largest percentage, people do pay more in taxes.
  • September 20, 2019: Joe Biden said“What I’d be focusing on is eliminating the $1.9 trillion tax cut that [Trump] passed.”
  • September 18,  2019: Cory Booker said: “My Plan would reverse those toxic Trump tax cuts.”
  • September 17, 2019: Joe Biden said “If I’m president of the United States, you’re going to see the end of Trump’s tax cut for the top tenth of one percent. It’s going to be done. Not a joke!” 
  • September 5, 2019: Bill de Blasio wrote that “As President, I would issue a robot tax.”
  • September 4, 2019: Andrew Yang said, “I do support a carbon tax.
  • September 4, 2019: Joe Biden endorses a carbon tax.
  • September 4, 2019: Pete Buttigieg said: First of all, it’s one of the reasons why I propose we assess a carbon tax. I know you’re not supposed to use the ‘T’ word when you’re in politics, but we might as well call it what it is.”
  • September 4, 2019: Elizabeth Warren said she endorses a carbon tax and “climate adjustment fee.”
  • September 3, 2019: Elizabeth Warren’s new climate plan calls for “reversing” the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
  • August 25, 2019: Bill de Blasio said: “So, first, what we should do to pay for our federal government, in general, is repeal the trump tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporations.”
  • August 25, 2019: Amy Klobuchar said“My plan is a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan, paid for by rolling back the parts of the Republican tax bill that were very regressive, like the corporate tax rate — if you bring it to 25%, you save $400 billion in 10 years.”
  • August 21, 2019: Joe Biden said“I believe we should, in fact, the capital gains tax should be at what the highest minimum tax should be, we should raise the tax back to 39.6 percent instead of 20 percent.”
  • August 12, 2019: Kamala Harris saidOn day one, we’re going to repeal that tax bill benefiting the top one percent and the biggest corporations in our country.
  • August 11, 2019: Kamala Harris saidOn day one, we’re going to repeal the tax bill that benefits the top one percent and the biggest corporations in America.
  • August 10, 2019: Elizabeth Warren called for a steep national gun tax.
  • August 9, 2019: Joe Biden said: “By eliminating just a few of the tax cuts,” Biden said, then added, “I’m going to eliminate most all of them. No, you think I’m joking? I’m not.
  • August 3, 2019: Corey Booker saidOne of the things I’m going to do for workers like that is take away these toxic Trump tax cuts,
  • August 2, 2019: Kamala Harris saidOn day one, we are going to repeal that tax bill that benefits the top one percent and the biggest corporations in our country,
  • July 31, 2019: Marianne Williamson saidI want to repeal the 2017 tax cut.”
  • July 30, 2019: John Delaney saidI put a price on carbon, take all the money, give it back to the American people in a dividend,
  • July 30, 2019: VIDEO: 2020 Democrats Will Raise Your Taxes
  • July 27, 2019: Kamala Harris Campaign Headquarters Located in Opportunity Zone Created by GOP Tax Cuts
  • July 24, 2019: Julian Castro said: “We’re going to have to raise taxes. And we’re going to begin by repealing and replacing the Trump tax cuts.
  • July 21, 2019: Kamala Harris tweeted: “Working families have been left behind, while those at the top have reaped the benefits. When elected, I will reverse Trump’s trillion-dollar tax scam and put money back in the pockets of middle-class families.
  • July 16, 2019: Joe Biden said: “I would raise the corporate tax. I think we should have lowered it from 36 to 28 percent, but it got lowered to 20 percent. If we just raised it back to 28 percent, we would raise about 600 billion dollars a year. Look at all of the needs we have and the opportunities we have. Ladies and gentlemen, it begins by reversing those cuts.”
  • July 16, 2019: Steve Bullock told Politico reporters on editors that he wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent.
  • July 16, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “We’ve got to increase the corporate tax rate.
  • July 16, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “And part of that is going to about repealing that tax bill that they just passed,
  • July 16, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “So, one, it’ll be about repealing that tax bill.
  • July 16, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “We need to repeal that tax bill.
  • July 16, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “On day one, it is my full intention to repeal that tax bill that passed, representing the top one percent and the biggest corporations in America.
  • July 15, 2019: Joe Biden’s campaign said that his new healthcare plan would be “financed by rolling back the $1.5 trillion tax cut Congress passed last year and doubling the tax rate on capital gains for the wealthiest Americans — those with annual incomes of more than $1 million.”
  • July 14, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “On day one, we are going to repeal that tax bill that benefits the top one percent and the biggest corporations in our country.
  • July 13, 2019: Cory Booker said: “I don’t think we can meet our climate goals with somehow without somehow pricing carbon….but yes, I do support [a carbon tax], okay.”
  • July 9, 2019: Democratic megadonor and radical environmental activist Tom Steyer announced he is officially entering the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Steyer’s political activism has included funding carbon tax campaigns.
  • July 7, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “On day one, we’re going to repeal that tax bill that benefits the top 1% and the biggest corporations in our country.
  • July 5, 2019: Joe Biden said: “Well, three things. One, I do raise the tax rate to 39.5 percent. I do, in fact, eliminate the ability for them to write off capital gains the way they do now. I would raise the — and raise billions of dollars — raise the corporate tax rate from 20 percent to 28 percent.
  • July 5, 2019: Jay Inslee said“Here’s how we get technology, we have the federal government reverse the Trump tax cuts.”
  • July 5, 2019: Jay Inslee said“And now we move forward to make rational decisions. To repeal the Trump tax cuts.”
  • July 2, 2019: Joe Biden is running ads to “Repeal Trump’s Tax Cuts.”
  • June 27, 2019: Pete Buttigieg said: “We need to do a carbon tax and dividend, but I would propose we do it in a way that is rebated out to the American people in a progressive fashion so that most Americans are made more than whole.
  • June 24, 2019: Kamala Harris tweeted: “Trump said he was going to protect workers, that he was going to support them, and lift them up. Instead, he passed a tax bill that benefited the top 1% and the biggest corporations in our country. When I enter the Oval Office, I will repeal the Trump trillion- dollar tax scam.”
  • June 22, 2019: Joe Biden said“And folks, on day one, I will move to eliminate Trump’s tax cuts.”
  • June 17, 2019: Joe Biden said“First thing I would do as president is eliminate the president’s tax cut.”
  • June 13, 2019, Joe Biden said: “And look, the tax cut he passed, for multimillionaires and billionaires, guess what, when I’m president it’s gone, it’s gone.”
  • June 12, 2019, Bernie Sanders said: “I suspect that a lot of people in this country would be delighted to pay more in taxes if they had comprehensive healthcare as a human right.
  • June 8, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “He said he was for working people, then he passed a tax bill benefiting the top one percent and the biggest corporations in this country. That’s tax fraud.”
  • June 7, 2019: Kamala Harris said: “On day one, we’re going to repeal that tax bill that benefited the top 1% and the biggest corporations in our country,”
  • June 4, 2019: Joe Biden said: “You go out and you make a capital gain you make a little bit of money on an investment you made and you’re about to go and cash it in.  You cash it in, you pay – now it’s down to 20% is too low – but you pay you used to pay them 28%,”
  • June 3, 2019: Joe Biden said: “If you make a gain, you buy something, you buy stock or anything else and that increases from $1 to $2 or $1 – $2 million, and you want to cash it in, get the cash, you got to pay a capital gains tax much lower than what you’d pay in your regular taxes. It’s much too low now in my view, but that’s a different issue.”
  • May 28, 2019: Joe Biden said: “You buy something, you buy stock at a dollar it goes to two dollars. You buy a Million, it goes to a million five. When you cash that in to make the gain you made, you have to pay a capital gains tax, which I believe is much too low.”
  • May 19, 2019: Pete Buttigieg duringFox News town hall, proposed six new tax hikes – an income tax hike, a corporate tax hike, a wealth tax, and a financial transactions tax — and slammed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as an “unnecessary and unaffordable tax cut for the very wealthiest.”
  • May 16, 2019:  Pete Buttigieg endorsed a carbon tax, which would raise the cost of everything Americans buy and do.
  • May 13, 2019: Joe Biden said“When I’m president, if God Willing I am, we’re going to reverse those Trump tax cuts.”
  • May 9, 2019: Mayor Pete Buttigieg endorsed a steep new “parcel tax” on homes and businesses while kowtowing to union bosses in Los Angeles. The tax will drive up the cost of living for owners and renters alike. 
  • May 5, 2019: Kamala Harris said“On day one, we gonna repeal that tax bill that benefited the top one percent and the biggest corporations in this country.”
  • May 4, 2019: Joe Biden said“First thing I’d do is repeal those Trump tax cuts.”
  • July 24, 2018: Elizabeth Warren said: “Yeah, I really want to see [corporate tax cuts] rolled back.
  • December 17, 2017: Bernie Sanders said: “Absolutely. Yes. In my view absolutely [taxes are going to have to go up on corporations].”
  • June 20, 2017: Michael Bloomberg endorsed a carbon tax.