In her unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris pledged to preserve most of Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, with at least one notable exception: She would have raised taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Now, the newly elected mayor of New York has a similar proposal. Among other plans, Zohran Mamdani wants to raise income taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers by 2%.
"We will put an end to the culture of corruption that has allowed billionaires like (President Donald) Trump to evade taxation and exploit tax breaks," Mamdani said in his victory speech at the close of the Nov. 4 election.
The idea, in both cases, is to create revenue by taxing rich people and use the money to pay for other initiatives. Harris sought taxes from the wealthy to pay down the nation’s estimated $2 trillion deficit. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, wants free city buses and a freeze on New York rents.
Taxing the rich has worked before. In the World War II era, the wealthiest Americans endured a top tax rate above 90% to buoy the economy.
