Millionaire tax is something that President Donald Trump said he’s open to, but is getting a lot of pushback from his party. In his recent interview with TIME, he said he would love to tax those who earn more than 1 million dollars per year but the only reason he would not support it is he does not want to lose an election for this.
“I think it would be very disruptive, because a lot of the millionaires would leave the country,” Trump said later. “The old days, they left states. They go from one state to the other. Now with transportation so quick and so easy, they leave countries.”
“You’ll lose a lot of money if you do that,” the president added. “And other countries that have done it have lost a lot of people. They lose their wealthy people. That would be bad, because the wealthy people pay the tax.”
‘It ain’t happening’
A prominent conservative leader, Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform said the Senate and House Republicans have been telling Trump that this is really a bad idea. “This idea is dead,” he declared. “It ain’t happening.” He said Trump realizes that it would be his “political death”.
But people like Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon think the idea is a masterstroke and if Trump raises the tax of the rich and thereby lowers the taxes of the middle-class, he won’t have to worry about a possible third term — the 22nd Amendment notwithstanding.
Millionaire tax vs elimination of income tax
Trump on Sunday reiterated the ambition of his administration that he would eliminate income tax for everyone and he said that his tariffs will get the credit. “We’re going to make a lot of money, and we’re going to cut taxes for the people of this country,” Trump said before boarding Air Force One for his return from Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome. “It’ll take a little while before we do that, but we’re going to be cutting taxes, and it’s possible we’ll do a complete tax cut, because I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.”
