Balance the Budget
Tax Wealth. Not workers.
Balance the Budget
Our national debt is approaching $40 trillion due to over fifty years of nearly uninterrupted deficit spending. We’ll soon be paying over $1 trillion in interest just to finance the debt. This unsustainable financial path will choke economic growth and increase the risk of ongoing financial stress and crisis. Balancing the country’s budget is critical; future generations do not deserve our debt. We can address this issue without impacting vital social programs or services by cutting fossil fuel and other industry subsidies, requiring competitive bidding for government contracts, defunding ICE, cutting wasteful military spending (the Pentagon must pass a full audit!), and fixing loopholes in our tax code.
Tax Extreme Wealth
Over the decades we’ve allowed an immense amount of wealth to be concentrated in the hands of a tiny fraction of our population. This is not only unfair, it’s dangerous for the health of our democracy. Those who’ve profited the most from our economy should support the important programs and infrastructure that enable their accumulation of vast wealth. Therefore I support policies such as the Ultra Millionaire Wealth Tax.
End “Buy/Borrow/Die” and Stepped-Up Basis
Billionaires don’t get rich off salaries—they use a tax-avoidance scheme called “Buy/Borrow/Die.” For example: Someone buys $20 billion in stocks and never sells them. They borrow against those assets, funding their lifestyle while paying a low interest rate to their bank – no taxes. When they die, a loophole called “stepped-up basis” magically wipes out any owed taxes on gains made on those stocks. So if the value increased to $50 billion, their heirs owe no capital gains tax on the $30 million gains. They keep all the money, free to start the same cycle all over again. We fix this by taxing massive unrealized gains like regular income, taxing gains above $5 million at death, and/or adding an excise tax on loans taken out against assets when not used to build a business.
Save Social Security
Social security will be insolvent by 2032 which means that in just 6 years, people will not receive the full amount to which they are entitled. As of now, income of more than $184,500 is not subject to social security. We can make sure that seniors continue to get their full benefits simply by taxing income over $400,000. I support the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act.