Heather Boushey, one of Joe Biden’s picks for his Council of Economic Advisers, wants to impose a wealth tax and earlier this year suggested amending the Constitution in order to make it happen.
On Feb. 6, Boushey said:
“The United States [was] one of the first in the world to do a federal income tax. When we first passed it into law it was deemed unconstitutional and it took decades to change the constitution to have a federal income tax. We might need to do that again on a wealth tax.”
A “wealth tax” is wrong on principle and unconstitutional. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4 states: “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”
Wealth taxes have proven so unworkable, and raise so little money, and chase so many people away that even Sweden and Denmark abolished their wealth taxes.
Wealth taxes were also repealed in The Netherlands, Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Italy.
Wealth taxes pushed by Democrats and left-leaning academics typically include an “exit tax” which even the Washington Post editorial board said “conveys a certain authoritarian odor.”
Joe Biden is not exactly surrounding himself with “moderates.”