Michael R. Strain, Columnist

The Holes in Warren’s Wealth Tax Can’t Be Plugged

The senator’s Democratic rivals need to seize the chance to point this out.

September 5, 2019 at 1:30 PM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

Weaponizing the tax code.
Photographer: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

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Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax on the most well-off Americans is very popular, according to several opinion polls taken in the months since she announced her idea. But her fellow Democratic politicians — both in Congress and in the party’s presidential race — have largely seemed to remain cool to her idea. Why is that?

It may be for political reasons, as an article last month in the Hill suggested: A number of Democrats have their own plans to collect more revenue from the top tier of taxpayers. Others may be wary of embracing Warren’s signature plan lest it be seen as an endorsement of her presidential bid.