Taxing the Ultra-Wealthy Forces Democrats to Get Creative

Democrats these days are throwing around plans for new and unprecedented taxes on wealth, financial transactions, capital gains, and inheritances. Tantalizing them are the trillions of dollars of wealth in the hands of the richest 0.1%, much of it escaping taxation.

Republicans passed their own tax-reform bill less than a year after President Trump took office, giving substantial breaks to the rich. While a Democratic version in 2021 would require taking back both the White House and U.S. Senate, almost every Democratic presidential candidate says higher taxes on the wealthy are a priority. Squeeze the billionaires, their thinking goes, ...