Q1: Most all candidates for the White House agree that the rich should pay their “fair share” at tax time. In your mind, what top marginal tax rate for the federal income tax would rate as “fair”?
⚪ The 91 percent top rate in effect during the Eisenhower years of the 1950s.
⚪ The 70 percent top rate in effect most of the years from the mid-1960s through 1980.
⚪ The 50 percent top rate in effect after the 1981 Reagan tax cut.
⚪ The 28 percent top rate enacted in 1986.
⚪ The 37 percent top rate now in effect.
⚫ Other.
It depends on what other tax rates are. I’ve proposed a two-cent wealth tax on the wealthiest 75,000 families in America. I’ve proposed imposing a 14.8% payroll tax on wages above $250,000 and a 14.8% tax on investment income for high earners as part of my Social Security expansion plan. The bottom line is that the wealthy and big corporations must pay more taxes than they do today.
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Q2. The majority of Americans support higher taxes for the rich. But policy analysts differ on who exactly rates as “rich.” At what level should the highest federal income tax rate kick in?
⚪ At the threshold for entry into the nation’s top 10 percent. In 2017, the most recent year with IRS data, this threshold stood at $130,060.
⚪ At the threshold for entry into the top 1 percent, income over $463,320.
⚪ At the threshold for entry into the top 0.1 percent, income over $2,099,400.
⚪ At the threshold for entry into the top 0.01 percent, income over $11,218,000.
⚫ Other.
I’ve proposed a two-cent wealth tax on the wealthiest 75,000 families in America. I’ve proposed imposing a 14.8% payroll tax on wages above $250,000 and a 14.8% tax on investment income for high earners as part of my Social Security expansion plan. I’ve also proposed returning the estate tax thresholds to their levels at the end of the George W. Bush administration and instituting more progressive rates above those thresholds. The bottom line is that the wealthy and big corporations must pay more taxes than they do today.
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Q3. Inequality in household wealth — the difference between what families own versus what they owe — runs even greater in the United States than inequality in income. How much wealth in the pockets of its richest 1 percent do you believe a healthy democratic society can accept?
⚪ No more than the 42 percent wealth share our wealthiest 1 percent has held in recent years.
⚪ No more than the 23 percent the U.S. wealthiest 1 percent held in 1978.
⚪ No more than the 11 percent the wealthiest 1 percent holds today in Japan.
⚫ Other.
I’ve proposed a two-cent wealth tax on the wealthiest 75,000 families in America. I’ve proposed imposing a 14.8% payroll tax on wages above $250,000 and a 14.8% tax on investment income for high earners as part of my Social Security expansion plan. I’ve also proposed returning the estate tax thresholds to their levels at the end of the George W. Bush administration and instituting more progressive rates above those thresholds. The bottom line is that the wealthy and big corporations must pay more taxes than they do today.
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Q4. Average Americans pay an annual property tax on their homes, the asset that makes up the bulk of the household wealth most Americans hold. But wealthy Americans pay no annual tax on the assets that make up the bulk of their wealth, everything from stocks and bonds to fine art and yachts. Would your administration support an annual wealth tax on the assets of America’s wealthy?
⚫ Yes
⚪ No
If yes: Above what level of wealth should this wealth tax apply?
My Ultra-Millionaire Tax asks the richest 0.1% of Americans to pay a 2% tax on every dollar above $50 million in wealth and 3% on every dollar above $1 billion in wealth, bringing in nearly $3 trillion in revenue that we can use to pay for things like Universal Child Care, student loan debt cancellation, universal free public college, and ending the opioid crisis.
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Q5. Back in 1980, top corporate CEOs in the United States took home about 40 times the pay of the nation’s average workers. That gap now averages over 300 times. In 2018, 50 U.S. corporations paid their CEOs over 1,000 times their median worker pay. What do you see as the appropriate ratio for the pay that goes to CEOs and their own company’s workers?
⚪ 6:1, the ratio average Americans cite as most appropriate in polling research.
⚪ 20:1, the widest CEO-worker pay gap that Peter Drucker, the father of modern American management science, considered acceptable.
⚪ 100:1, the standard that Portland, Oregon — the first political jurisdiction in the world to tax excessive executive compensation — has set to define where excess begins.
⚪ 150:1, the average CEO-worker pay gap in the UK, the world’s second most generous nation — after the United States — for top corporate executive compensation.
⚫ Other.
The ratio should be far lower than it is right now. We needed more transparency about this issue, which is why I pushed the SEC to complete its CEO pay ratio rule after it delayed its implementation and within months it was finalized. We also need to address the underlying cause of this skyrocketing CEO pay ratio — the harmful corporate obsession with maximizing shareholder returns at all costs, which has padded the pockets of CEOs who are compensated in company shares while depressing wages for other company employees. My Accountable Capitalism Act would empower workers at large U.S. corporations to elect at least 40% of their employers’ Boards of Directors and give workers a seat at the table when corporations make decisions. And it would prohibit corporate executives from selling company shares within five years of receiving them or within three years of a company stock buyback.
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Q6. A century ago, Congress enacted an estate tax, to put a brake on concentrations of inherited wealth and power and raise substantial revenue from our nation’s richest. Since 2000, Congress has subverted that original intent. Lawmakers have lowered the estate tax rate and exempted millions in personal wealth from any tax. Fortunes worth up to $22.8 million can now face no estate tax at all. Which of these steps to limiting intergenerational transfers of wealth do you support?
☑ Exempting fewer millions from estate taxation. The estate tax threshold for couples should drop from the current $22.8 million to: $7 million.
☑ Taxing the nation’s wealthiest estates on a graduated basis, an approach that would subject estates worth $1 billion to a higher tax than an estate worth $50 million. All large bequests currently face the same tax rate.
☑ Eliminating the “step up in basis” loophole, a giveaway to the affluent that lets appreciated stock and other assets transfer to heirs without ever incurring a capital gains tax.
☐ Treating inheritances as income instead of taxing the estates the wealthy leave behind. Standard income tax rates should apply on all inherited income over:
☐ Other: _______________
My American Housing and Economic Mobility Act would build or rehabilitate 3.2 million units over the next decade, bring down rental costs by 10 percent, invest half a billion dollars in rural housing programs, create 1.5 million new jobs and so much more – all paid for by returning the estate tax thresholds to their levels at the end of the George W. Bush administration and instituting more progressive rates above those thresholds. Currently, an heir doesn’t pay a dollar of estate taxes until they inherit a fortune of $22 million or more. I would lower that threshold to $7 million and raise the tax rates above that threshold so ultra-millionaires and billionaires pay a larger share.
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Q7. To effectively reduce inequality, many tax analysts agree, we need multiple new approaches to taxing the wealthy and the sources of their wealth. Which of these proposed approaches would you advance once in the White House?
☑ A tax on Wall Street financial transactions designed to discourage the speculation that undercuts the economic security of average Americans.
☑ An end to preferential tax rates that privilege income from dividends and buying and selling stocks, real estate, and other assets over income from wages and salaries.
☐ A 10 percent surtax on all income over $2 million.
☐ Other:
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Q8. Robust tax rates on the incomes and estates of America’s wealthiest helped forge a much more equal America in the middle of the 20th century. Robust protections for workers and their right to organize into trade unions played an equally pivotal role. Which of these initiatives would your administration work to enact into law?
☐ A requirement that all corporate boards of directors include elected worker representatives.
☑ Labor law reforms that require employers to bargain collectively once a majority of a company’s workers have signed cards indicating they want union representation.
☑ Stiffer penalties on employers who retaliate against workers organizing unions.
☐ Legislation that requires large corporations to transfer up to 10 percent of their shares into “Inclusive Ownership Funds” that give employees “a stake and a say” in corporate dividend distribution and other enterprise decisions.
☑ A national fair workweek act, along the lines of similar legislation passed in several U.S. cities and states, that ensures all workers stable and predictable hours.
Strengthening America’s labor unions will be a central goal of my administration. For too long, a worker’s right to unionize has been under attack – and states have been left to try to fight these battles on their own. That’s why I introduced a new law that would ban states from passing so-called right-to-work laws that destroy unions. That’s also why I’ve co-sponsored the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, the Public Sector Freedom to Negotiate Act and the Workplace Democracy Act. We need to make it easier to join a union and give unions more power when they negotiate.
Labor laws have not kept pace with the 21st century economy. It’s time to re-think the basic social contract on labor. We’re going to fight for fully portable benefits for everyone. We’re going to fight to make sure that all work—full-time, part-time, gig—carries basic, pro-rata benefits. And we need to turn the minimum wage into a living wage, implement President Obama’s overtime pay rules and rules that limit workers’ exposure to chemicals that can cause lung disease and cancer, ensure workers’ hours are stable and fair, and make it quick and easy to join a union.
Finally, my Accountable Capitalism Act would empower workers at large U.S. corporations to elect at least 40% of their employers’ Boards of Directors and give workers a seat at the table when corporations make decisions. And it would require that all corporations receive approval from at least 75 percent of their shareholders and directors before engaging in political expenditures.
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Q9. Over a century ago, the famed newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer urged Americans to beware both “predatory plutocracy” and “predatory poverty.” The United States has made little appreciable progress against poverty over recent decades, and that failure has had a disproportionate impact on women and people of color. Which of these policies to “lift the floor” and expand the U.S. social safety net will your administration promote?
☑ A national $15 minimum wage.
☑ The elimination of the federal subminimum wage for tipped workers, currently $2.13 per hour.
☑ A guaranteed two weeks of annual paid family and medical leave for every worker.
☑ Universal, single-payer health insurance.
☑ Free tuition at public colleges and universities.
☑ A federal jobs guarantee.
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Q10. Today, over a half-century since the classic triumphs of the civil rights movement, the United States still suffers from a staggering racial wealth divide, with median white families holding over 40 times more household wealth than black families — and over 20 times more than Latinx families. Which of these policies to narrow the racial wealth divide would your administration advance?
☐ “Baby bonds” that would be awarded at birth to every American child and held in trust until each child turns 18, with the federal contributions to each bond keyed to parental income.
☑ Federal down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers living in formerly redlined or segregated areas.
☑ A postal banking system that gives the “unbanked” ready access to non-predatory check-cashing and small-loan services.
☑ The convening of a federal commission to explore options for structuring reparations that address the economic legacy left by slavery and generations of racist public policy.
☑ Other:
I’ve proposed plans that would substantially narrow the racial wealth gap – like establishing a minimum $50 billion fund for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions. I have a plan to respect our trust and treaty obligations to Native Americans and meaningfully invest in the education of Native American kids – from birth through college – so all students have a chance to achieve. And my Universal Child Care plan makes child care and early education free for millions of families and affordable for everyone, while paying child care workers, who are disproportionately women of color, like comparable public school teachers. I’ve also proposed a new set of executive actions that I will take on day one as president to boost wages for women of color and open up new pathways to the leadership positions they deserve. And I’ve proposed creating a $7 billion Small Business Equity Fund to help close the startup capital gap for entrepreneurs of color.
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Q11. Women in the United States now earn the majority of college degrees awarded. Yet women continue to be underrepresented in high-level, highly paid positions and overrepresented in low-paying jobs. Which of these steps to narrow the gender divide will your administration support?
☑ Adopting the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
☐ Requiring companies to disclose gender pay gaps, the current practice in the UK.
☐ Mandating gender quotas on corporate boards, the current practice in Norway.
☐ Fining companies with gender pay divides, a move France is now implementing.
☐ Using gender-responsive budgeting — as many nations worldwide are now doing — to identify how fiscal policy impacts gender gaps and then funding initiatives to bridge these gaps.
☐ Other:
I believe in equal pay for equal work. That is why I supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it easier to challenge pay discrimination and hold employers responsible for discriminatory practices.
I’ve also proposed a new set of executive actions that I will take on day one as president to boost wages for women of color and open up new pathways to the leadership positions they deserve. I will build on existing disclosure requirements by requiring every federal contractor to disclose data on employees’ pay and role, broken out by race, gender, and age and direct agencies not to enter into contracts with companies with poor track records on diversity in management and equal pay for equal work. I will ban companies that want federal contracts from using forced arbitration and non-compete clauses that restrict workers’ rights. I will ban contractors from asking applicants for past salary information and criminal histories and I will ensure federal contractors extend a $15 minimum wage and benefits to all employees.
Additionally, I will strengthen and target enforcement against systemic discrimination by ensuring the EEOC closely monitor and enforce regulations in sectors that disproportionately employ Black and Brown women and have higher rates of discriminatory practices. My EEOC will also issue first-of-its-kind guidance on enforcing claims involving the intersectional discrimination that women of color face from the interlocking biases of racism and sexism.
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Q12. American children born in 1940, research shows, had above a 90 percent chance of earning more than their parents. Children born in the 1980s have had a 50 percent chance. Many of the proposals identified in previous questions would help restore much greater social mobility to American life. Which of these additional steps would your White House support?
☑ Mitigating the consequences of adverse personal shocks, as OECD analysts suggest, by protecting individuals against income loss after unemployment, divorce, and childbirth.
☑ Disaggregating current federal quarterly and annual GDP growth stats, as proposed by Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s “Measuring Real Income Growth Act,” to show how low-, middle-, and high-income Americans are actually experiencing the nation’s economic growth.
☐ Establishing an official “Social Justice Commission,” as recently proposed by the UK Labour Party, to publish periodic “impact statements” that would assess whether particular government policies are growing mobility throughout communities of modest means — or only advancing the life chances of a select few.
☐ Other:
Over the years, America’s middle class has been deliberately hollowed out and families of color have been systematically discriminated against and denied their chance to build some security. The wealthy and well-connected have lobbied Washington and paid off politicians to tilt the system in their favor and now, in the richest country in the history of the world, tens of millions of people are struggling just to get by. In addition, the change in corporate philosophy in the 1980s towards “shareholder value maximization” has seen companies shift trillions of dollars away from long-term investments and worker pay to stock buybacks and dividends for shareholders.
Since the early 1970s, wages in America have barely budged, even as corporate profits have soared and worker productivity has steadily increased. But the cost of housing, the cost of college, and the cost of healthcare has shot up. The middle-class squeeze is real, and millions of families can barely breathe. Today, our government works great for oil and pharmaceutical companies, defense contractors, private prisons, and Wall Street, it’s just not working for anyone else.
We need to make big structural change to the economy so that it works better for everyone. Each of my economic plans aims in that directions:
- With my new Ultra-Millionaire Tax on wealth above $50 million, we can bring in nearly $3 trillion in revenue over ten years — enough to cancel student loan debt for 42 million Americans, provide universal free two-year, four-year, and technical public college, and universal child care and early learning for every child ages 0 to 5.
- My economic patriotism agenda would use every tool the government has to create and defend good American jobs — which means overhauling our approach to trade, manufacturing, and financial regulation. My Green Manufacturing plan alone would invest $2 trillion over ten years in clean energy technology made right here in America, creating more than one million good new jobs.
- My Accountable Capitalism plan would empower American workers by authorizing them to elect 40% of Board members of big American corporations and by legally obligating companies to consider the interests of their workers, not just their shareholders.
- My housing plan builds or rehabs 3.2 million new housing units, bringing down rents by 10% and creating 1.5 million good new jobs. Its cost is covered by returning the estate tax to the levels at the end of the George W. Bush Administration and instituting more progressive rates above those levels.
- I will use America’s leverage to shape a new approach to trade. We will use trade deals to create and defend good American jobs, raise wages and farm income, combat climate change, lower drug prices, and raise living standards worldwide. We will engage in international trade — but on our terms and only when it benefits American families and workers.