SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Ocasio-Cortez Forced to Explain Marginal Tax Rates to 'Far-Right Former Governor' Scott Walker
"Imagine if you did chores for abuela & she gave you $10. When you got home, you got to keep it, because it's only $10.... Then we taxed the billionaire in town because he's making tons of money underpaying the townspeople."
Jan 14, 2019
In response to a tweet by the former Republican of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Tuesday afternoon offered a tax lesson of her own and once again showed why she remains a rising star when it comes to messaging progressive ideas, navigating social media, and dismantling right-wing idiocy disguised as wisdom that the GOP has gotten away with for decades.
"Hey Scott Walker, it's clear that you don't understand marginal tax rates and we can't have you mis-informing America's children." --Tax March
Intended as a likely swipe against Ocasio-Cortez's recent "not at all outlandish" proposal to raise the marginal tax rate on the nation's wealthiest to 70 percent or more--a proposal, by the way, which a new poll out Tuesday shows a majority of Americans support--Walker earlier in the day tweeted out a message in which described how he would explain to 5th graders (in the years "before [Ronald] Reagan") how "tax rates" work - at least in his Koch Brothers-backed mind.
But right on cue, the congresswoman from New York took Walker's silly tax policy lesson and gave it right back:
And she wasn't alone.
"What Walker leaves out of the story," joked Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel, "is that the student had already made $9,999,990 on house work that year and the extra $10 pushed him into the top bracket."
"How is it even possible that you don't know how marginal tax rates work?" the progressive advocacy group Credo Mobile asked Walker.
And while the Patriotic Millionaires, a group wealthy individuals which advocates for higher taxes on people in their tax bracket, offered to share their resource materials to Walker so that he might better understand how the marginal rate works, their progressive allies at the Tax March also wanted to help.
"Hey Scott Walker, it's clear that you don't understand marginal tax rates and we can't have you mis-informing America's children," the group tweeted. "Check out our newest explainer video, it will get you up to speed." Watch:
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
In response to a tweet by the former Republican of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Tuesday afternoon offered a tax lesson of her own and once again showed why she remains a rising star when it comes to messaging progressive ideas, navigating social media, and dismantling right-wing idiocy disguised as wisdom that the GOP has gotten away with for decades.
"Hey Scott Walker, it's clear that you don't understand marginal tax rates and we can't have you mis-informing America's children." --Tax March
Intended as a likely swipe against Ocasio-Cortez's recent "not at all outlandish" proposal to raise the marginal tax rate on the nation's wealthiest to 70 percent or more--a proposal, by the way, which a new poll out Tuesday shows a majority of Americans support--Walker earlier in the day tweeted out a message in which described how he would explain to 5th graders (in the years "before [Ronald] Reagan") how "tax rates" work - at least in his Koch Brothers-backed mind.
But right on cue, the congresswoman from New York took Walker's silly tax policy lesson and gave it right back:
And she wasn't alone.
"What Walker leaves out of the story," joked Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel, "is that the student had already made $9,999,990 on house work that year and the extra $10 pushed him into the top bracket."
"How is it even possible that you don't know how marginal tax rates work?" the progressive advocacy group Credo Mobile asked Walker.
And while the Patriotic Millionaires, a group wealthy individuals which advocates for higher taxes on people in their tax bracket, offered to share their resource materials to Walker so that he might better understand how the marginal rate works, their progressive allies at the Tax March also wanted to help.
"Hey Scott Walker, it's clear that you don't understand marginal tax rates and we can't have you mis-informing America's children," the group tweeted. "Check out our newest explainer video, it will get you up to speed." Watch:
In response to a tweet by the former Republican of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Tuesday afternoon offered a tax lesson of her own and once again showed why she remains a rising star when it comes to messaging progressive ideas, navigating social media, and dismantling right-wing idiocy disguised as wisdom that the GOP has gotten away with for decades.
"Hey Scott Walker, it's clear that you don't understand marginal tax rates and we can't have you mis-informing America's children." --Tax March
Intended as a likely swipe against Ocasio-Cortez's recent "not at all outlandish" proposal to raise the marginal tax rate on the nation's wealthiest to 70 percent or more--a proposal, by the way, which a new poll out Tuesday shows a majority of Americans support--Walker earlier in the day tweeted out a message in which described how he would explain to 5th graders (in the years "before [Ronald] Reagan") how "tax rates" work - at least in his Koch Brothers-backed mind.
But right on cue, the congresswoman from New York took Walker's silly tax policy lesson and gave it right back:
And she wasn't alone.
"What Walker leaves out of the story," joked Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel, "is that the student had already made $9,999,990 on house work that year and the extra $10 pushed him into the top bracket."
"How is it even possible that you don't know how marginal tax rates work?" the progressive advocacy group Credo Mobile asked Walker.
And while the Patriotic Millionaires, a group wealthy individuals which advocates for higher taxes on people in their tax bracket, offered to share their resource materials to Walker so that he might better understand how the marginal rate works, their progressive allies at the Tax March also wanted to help.
"Hey Scott Walker, it's clear that you don't understand marginal tax rates and we can't have you mis-informing America's children," the group tweeted. "Check out our newest explainer video, it will get you up to speed." Watch:
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.