Elizabeth Warren wants to use her wealth tax to wipe out Americans' college debt and pay for tuition

[Shrek]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/22/elizabeth-warren-use-wealth-tax-to-wipe-out-college-debt-and-pay-tuition.html

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has identified something else to finance with her proposed wealth tax: wiping out student debt and tuition at public colleges.

The Massachusetts senator, who has raced ahead of her 2020 rivals with detailed plans to re-arrange America’s economic priorities, on Monday unveiled her proposal for easing access to higher education. It would:

• Spend $1.25 trillion over 10 years to eliminate up to $50,000 in student debt for those with household incomes under $100,000


• Allow states to make public colleges tuition-free


• Spend $100 billion on expanded Pell grants to defray more non-tuition expenses

The money would come from the 2% annual tax she proposes to levy on accumulations of wealth exceeding $50 million, with an additional 1% on wealth exceeding $1 billion. Warren justified the link by asserting that higher education financing has long been crimped by tax cuts for wealthy Americans and corporations.

[Opel_Justwax]

1. Can the federal government just tax someone on their wealth?

The 16th amendment allows the federal government to tax income, but there is nothing allowing the taxation for the accumulation of wealth.

[Shrek]

2. It depends on whom you ask

There are plausible arguments on both sides.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/constitutional-concerns-are-a-major-risk-for-a-wealth-tax.html

[BeckyDem]

3. You go girl!

[Freethinker65]

4. Four years too late for me, Senator Warren.

I see the merit to her proposal. I think subsidized tuition at community colleges and state schools would be a positive. I would also include certified trade schools,etc. I personally do not believe they should be "free" for everyone. For myself, I took academics more seriously when I was paying something for the classes.

However there will be lots of angry people that saved and sacrificed so their kids could attend college with less, little, to no debt. Those people now might have let there kids take on 50K debt before contributing if they had known? And yes, I am one of those people.

There is also the phenomenon (yes, a right wing talking point, but it has occurred) where if businesses know the bill is being subsidized, they sometimes raise the overall bill factoring in that the consumer can afford to pay more because of the subsidy.