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CNBC Host Picks Apart Democrat Senator’s Tax Plan To His Face

[Screenshot/CNBC]

CNBC host Becky Quick appeared skeptical of Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s tax proposal on Tuesday.

Van Hollen introduced the Working Americans’ Tax Cut Act (WATCA), which intends to eliminate income taxes on lower-income Americans while adding new surtaxes on individuals making over $1 million annually. Quick pressed Van Hollen on whether it was beneficial to increase the number of Americans who do not have to pay any federal income taxes during a segment on “Squawk Box.”

“Senator Van Hollen, under this plan, though, the number of tax filers with no income tax would increase from 37 million people currently to 66 million dollars. And there are people who have questioned for years the idea of having millions of people who don’t pay any money into the federal government, essentially,” Quick said. 

“Well, of course they do pay. They pay in their FICA taxes. They pay Social Security. They pay Medicare … So people are paying taxes to support the services they’re getting,” Van Hollen replied. “But let’s ask the question, do you really think if you’re making just the living wage that the federal income tax should take away that money? So, yes, it does increase the number of people who don’t pay federal income tax. ” Van Hollen replied. 

Van Hollen argued that the wealthy should pay a little more in taxes to give lower and middle-income more breathing room. Quick argued that his plan could result in Americans no longer being incentivized to work harder and that it does not solve the current affordability crisis.

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“I guess the question is, do you redistribute all income set up this way?” Quick said. “And if so, are you chipping away at the incentivization structure to convince people to work harder for some of these things? And that’s not to say that people making forty five thousand dollars a year are not working very hard. You’ve got teachers, you’ve got firemen, you’ve got laborers who are working very, very hard for these things. But there are affordability problems that are inherent in our society at this point that probably need to be tackled, whether that’s housing, whether that’s going after inflation.”

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The maximum tax would set an exemption equal to $46,000 for single filers and $92,000 for joint filers. To finance the cut, the plan would add a 5% surtax on income levels above $1 million, 10% above $2 million and 12% above $5 million.

Van Hollen’s proposal would reduce federal tax revenue by an estimated $86 billion between 2026 and 2035 and reduce revenue by over $18o billion over ten years, according to the Tax Foundation.