Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke proposes using the tax code to transfer money from wealthy Americans to African-Americans.
He spoke to a crowd of about 100 people at a campaign event hosted in the backyard of former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Smith.
O’Rourke was asked how his proposal for equality would work, The Washington Examiner reported.
“We know from our history of redlining and excluding African Americans from the ability to build wealth through home purchases, that opportunity does not exist for much of the country,” he said. “What if in the tax code we did a better job of breaking down that accumulated wealth, of taxing it so it is not producing the greatest income and wealth inequality that we’ve seen in our lifetimes, unseen since the Gilded Age of the 19th century? What if we decided that we would use the proceeds to invest in people, in education?”
Other Democratic presidential candidates also mentioned using the tax system to target wealthy people. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) suggested taxing 2% on wealth over $50 million and 3% on assets worth $3 billion.
O’Rourke suggests using tax code to transfer wealth from rich whites to African-Americans – Fox News O’Rourke suggests using tax code to transfer wealth from rich whites to African-Americans Fox News
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke sugg… https://t.co/xGFcNDVP7s
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O’Rourke announced on March 14 that he is running for presidency.
The same day, in an interview with Fox, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa was not able to specify a single accomplishment of O’Rourke’s.
The program’s interviewer, Ed Henry, asked Hinojosa several times to identify one thing that O’Rourke had accomplished.
“What would you say is Beto O’Rourke’s top accomplishment that he brings to the table?” he said.
Hinojosa replied, “I think what Beto O’Rourke has done, particularly in the last senatorial campaign that he ran in 2018 is, I think, show the people of Texas, and now the people of America, what it means to be an honest politician, an honest person who is going to talk about things that are important to families all across this country. You don’t always see that with politicians.”
Henry then asked, “Nancy Pelosi was asked today about his biggest accomplishment and she could not really name one, even though he served in the House for a brief time admittedly, but you are telling me he is an honest politician, that’s his biggest accomplishment?”
Hinojosa said O’Rourke could not have affected much change during his six years in office because the House of Representatives had been controlled by Republicans.
Despite his left-wing policies, O’Rourke’s emergence as a Democratic presidential candidate is not without its critics, even from within the Democratic Party.
In an article published on May 11, The New York Times gave voice to what they call “Female Democratic strategists” who take issue with O’Rourke’s approach to touring the country talking about equality. “Imagine, they say, if Beto were Betsy. What would the reception have been if a female candidate left her three small children home and spent several weeks traveling the country, posting stream-of-consciousness diary entries? Or if she chose to forgo a Senate race that would provide a greater opportunity for victory?”
As of April 30, O’Rourke is sixth most likely to be voted in as the Democratic Party’s leader, and has a five percent approval rating with Democratic voters, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll.
