In the wealthiest nation in history, millions of people can’t afford basic needs like housing, health care, child care, or retirement. At the same time, billionaires are getting richer than ever and multinational corporations are raking in record profits — all while paying lower tax rates than most Americans.

This isn’t by accident. It’s the result of decades of deliberate policy choices and a corruption of the American tax code that has shifted wealth and power to the very top: tax cuts for the rich, deregulation for big oil and big banks, attacks on unions and the social safety net. Meanwhile, ridiculous loopholes — like the carried interest exemption — let hedge fund managers and private equity billionaires pay lower tax rates than the people who clean their offices.

Working people are producing more than ever, but that wealth is being hoarded at the top. It’s time to rewrite the rules of our economy so that it serves the broad public, not the privileged few.

We cannot sustain a society where the rich get richer and everyone else falls further behind. Extreme inequality isn’t just an economic issue, it’s a threat to our democracy, our society, and to the American dream itself.

I’ll fight to close the wealth gap and make billionaires pay their fair share by:

• Implementing a Wealth Tax: In the United States, income inequality is at the highest levels in more than 100 years. And while working people pay their fair share, billionaires have carved themselves out of the tax code. We should implement a modest wealth tax on the assets of billionaires and ultra-millionaires to fund the priorities we all care about. 

• Immediately Rolling Back the Trump Tax Cuts for the Highest Earners and the Trump Tariffs: Trump’s giveaways to the wealthy cost us hundreds of billions of dollars. We can and should immediately roll back Trump’s tax cuts for the richest people in the world. And we should get rid of Trump’s ridiculous tariffs, which are simply a tax on working people.

• Closing the Hedge Fund Loophole: End the outrageous carried-interest tax break, worth tens of billions of dollars, that allows private equity execs and hedge fund managers to pay lower tax rates than working Americans.

• Tax Billionaires’ Investment Income at the Same Rate as Wages: Income from stocks and capital gains should be taxed fairly — no more special treatment for the wealthiest Americans. Capital gains income should be taxed at the same rate as wages for anyone making more than $1 million a year.

• Raising the Corporate Tax Rate and Cracking Down on Tax Avoidance: We should reverse Donald Trump’s corporate tax cut and make multinational corporations pay their fair share. And we need to close loopholes that let corporations get rich off of Americans and then shift those profits offshore to avoid paying what they owe.

• Expanding Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit: These middle class tax breaks have proven extremely effective at combating poverty, especially child poverty, and stimulating the local economy. 

• Reinstating and Expanding IRS Direct File: No one should be charged outrageous fees simply to file their taxes. The IRS Direct File program was effective and popular — until it was killed by tax lobbyists looking to cash in on red tape. Direct File should be reinstated and expanded to all 50 states.
  

I’m running for Congress because I believe our economy must reflect our values. That means hard work should pay off, no one should live in poverty, and billionaires should play by the same rules as the rest of us. If we want a future where everyone can build a life of dignity, we have to take bold action to close the inequality gap and invest in the common good.