Talarico Launches AOC Style Tax Plan For Billionaires

It’s still unclear who Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico will face in the November general election, but he’s already ramping up his campaign by proposing a new tax plan. In true Democrat fashion, the plan is primarily a tax increase.

According to reporting on Talarico’s newly announced plan from the El Paso Times, the plan appears to be an AOC-style “Tax the Rich” plan targeting billionaires. Talarico himself says it will close legal loopholes that billionaires take advantage of to pay less in taxes.

According to a study from TaxFoundation.org, the top 1% that Talarico’s plan targets actually pay roughly 40% of all taxes in the United States, but Talarico wants them to pay more anyway.

In their article, the El Paso Times says the key points of Talarico’s plan are as follows:

• Audit the ultra-wealthy and ensure they are paying what they actually owe in taxes;
• Prevent wealthy investment managers from paying lower tax rates than their employees by classifying their pay as profit instead of wages;
• Impose restrictions on offshore bank accounts, which billionaires use to pay lower taxes, leading to more than $100 billion in annual losses for U.S. taxpayers;
• Stop the ultra-rich from avoiding taxes by borrowing against their wealth to give them tax-free cash flow until they die and then repeating the process with their heirs;
• Prevent the ultra-wealthy from writing off purchases like private jets, yachts, and sports teams to avoid paying millions in taxes.

Political consultant Bill Miller summarized the plan, saying: “Basically it says we’re gonna do this, that, and the other to a lot of people, but it boils down to raising taxes. That’s simply not a winnable strategy, and it’s a bad message.”

Miller went on to say that while something like this might be popular in a Democrat primary, there’s no evidence it would win votes in a Texas statewide general election. “He sounds like a national Democrat,” he said. “You can’t sound like a national Democrat and win statewide office in Texas. It’s been proven.”