Julian Castro proposed a new inherited wealth tax on heirs receiving more than $2 million in their lifetimes, which he said he would use to help pay for a $3,000-per-child tax credit and expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.
The Democratic presidential candidate also would also match the capital gains tax rate to that paid on earned income. For those making more than $400,000, the marginal rate would be 40%. And Castro would use a mark-to-market accounting method that would tax assets as they appreciate, not when they’re sold.
Castro’s tax plan, released Thursday, differs from wealth taxes offered by rivals Bernie Sanders, who has proposed a 77% tax on billionaires’ estates, and Elizabeth Warren, who wants a tax of at least 2% on all assets of more than $50 million. Castro didn’t specify the rate for his inheritance tax, but it’s based on a “silver spoon” tax proposal that would charge 15% above the income tax rate.
“Why in the richest nation on Earth should we tax work more than wealth?” Castro said in a blog post announcing the plan. “The wealthy few have set up the rules to work for themselves, while working families who labor for a living are left behind.”
O’Rourke to Campaign, But Not in Early States
Resisting calls to drop out of the Democratic presidential race, Beto O’Rourke vowed to press on to fight President Donald Trump -- but not the way most candidates do it.
Rather than go to early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire, O’Rourke said he would instead visit places that he said had been damaged by Trump’s rhetoric or policies. On Friday, for example, he will go to the sites of recent immigration raids in Mississippi, that left some children alone and unsupervised.
O’Rourke, who paused his campaign for more than week in the aftermath of the mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, said he was returning to the trail to fight Trump, whom he called “the gravest threat” the U.S. had ever known.
“Some have suggested I stay in Texas and run for Senate, but that would not be good enough for for El Paso and it would not be good enough for this country,” he said. “We must take the fight directly to the source -- to the person that has caused this pain and peril: Donald Trump.”
O’Rourke ran for Senate in 2018 and was narrowly defeated by incumbent Republican Ted Cruz. Some Texas Democrats have implored him to drop out of his flagging presidential effort and run in 2020 against Republican Senator John Cornyn.