Salon - Paul Krugman shuts down right-wing attacks on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[TomCADem]

Of course, now that Paul Krugman has validated the economics behind her tax proposal, perhaps she will now get attacks from the “left” for being a neoliberal?

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/09/paul-krugman-shuts-down-right-wing-attacks-on-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/

LLast week, in an interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, newly-elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) proposed a 60-70 percent marginal tax on income above $10 million, to finance a transition to renewable energy.

This isn’t a particularly extreme idea. It would be about where the top marginal tax rate was in the 1960s, and indeed the super-rich would probably still get to keep most of their money because the bulk of their wealth comes from capital gains, not earned income. If anything, Charles Lane argues in the Washington Post that Ocasio-Cortez ought to go even bigger and propose eliminating all deductions.

Nonetheless, her proposal has sparked a predictable wave of anger from Republicans, some of whom are trying to claim she wants to tax all income at 70 percent (which is not how marginal tax rates work).

The debate prompted Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman to write a basic primer in The New York Times on why Ocasio-Cortez’s idea was a good one. Essentially, he argued that the top marginal rate should be about where Ocasio-Cortez wants it to be, if not slightly higher, because an extra $1,000 in income is less valuable to a wealthy family than a lower-income one, and because in a competitive market, where everyone earns the value they produce, we should care more about the tax revenue generated from the rich than how much more they are incentivized to work.

[rickyhall]

1. Raise the standard deduction poverty level.

I also like the idea of Universal Standard Income, Nixon tried it, but wingers shut him down.

[Hortensis]

2. Of course this is an old mainstream idea. As for Fox

attacking Ocasio, that's all been part of building her up into a national figure for the right to use. Whenever she criticizes Democrats, they and Russia sharpen and amplify that in all media. Otherwise, they portray her as one of a giant hoard of socialist monsters under the bed to keep fear stoked in their aging viewership.

If it wasn't her, it'd be someone else. Battle is ON for the soul of our nation.

[shanny]

3. Of course not.

[femmedem]

4. Excellent article; wish you hadn't injected a jab at the left.

I'm leftwing and I want ideas like this to become mainstream.