Sen. Elizabeth Warren's proposed wealth tax will prove devastating to the economy, but President Joe Biden's tax plans will also be a major issue, Larry Kudlow, former President Donald Trump's top White House economic adviser, said Wednesday.
"It’s going to mean higher taxes for everybody and it’s going to weaken the economy," Kudlow said on Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria."
Warren, D-Mass, plans to call for higher taxes on fortunes valued at more than $50 million when she joins the Senate Finance Committee, according to her office.
Kudlow said he doesn't know how far Warren's plan will go, but stressed that Biden's tax policy will also be a major issue.
"They’re going to double the capital gains tax, increase the tax on upper-end successful earners,” Kudlow, who will start his own Fox Business program on Feb. 8, said of the Biden plans. “They’re going to tax energy to death, in fact, they’re going to wreck the whole energy sector and yes a wealth tax was in their program.”
A wealth tax is different from taxes that are placed on income and payroll, as it targets the value of the accumulated assets of the nation's richest people, or their network, in an effort to create a more level playing field between the wealthy and middle classes.
Warren introduced her plan during her campaign for the White House, and her office said her pending proposal is expected to follow the same guidelines.
The tax would be for people with more than $50 million in assets and equal 2% but would rise for people who have more than $1 billion. Initially, the tax was to go up to 3%, but the senator later raised it to 6%.
Kudlow said the tax would eventually affect everyone because a tax on wealth means a tax on investment.
“Those people with the upper end are essentially investors,” Kudlow said. “They plant the seeds that grow into fruitful economies. Investment is the working person’s best friend."
Trump's tax cuts, however, especially with businesses, benefitted the middle class and people with lower incomes the most, "substantially more than the upper income," said Kudlow.
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