How much would Howard Schultz raise tax on the wealth?
Don’t ask Howard Schultz.
Asked on tonight first by a member of the audience -- and then by moderator Poppy Harlow, repeatedly -- about the rate he believed the richest Americans should pay, Schultz demurred.
“The headline is here,” Schultz insisted, “I should be paying more taxes. And people who make this kind of revenue, and are of means, should pay more taxes.”
Pressed by Harlow for some kind of detail -- a hike of 2% or 10% or 20%? -- he said: “I don’t what the number is.”
Schultz was clear, though, on what he didn’t like: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s suggested 70% rate on the highest earners, calling it “punitive.”
“I don’t know what the number is,” Schultz said again later, “but what I’m suggesting is that I should be paying higher taxes and I think people across the country are willing to pay higher taxes.”
The problem with any raise to any rates, he added, was that Americans had lost their faith in government and elected leaders to put the new revenue to good use. Which brought Schultz back to an earlier point: the Green New Deal, another program he does not support.
He also criticized President Trump’s corporate tax cuts, which took the rate down to 21%, saying it “never should have happened.”
Watch the moment: