Sanders Backs Tax Hike for Wealthy in NYC Despite $4 Billion Surplus

Bernie Sanders, the former presidential candidate and avowed socialist, recently spoke in New York City to support Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to increase taxes on the richest New Yorkers.

The idea of Sanders supporting a tax hike is about as novel as finding out Ted Nugent likes guns. Sanders rarely meets a tax hike he doesn’t like, after all. Unfortunately, he found himself a little caught off-guard this time.

From The Daily Caller:

Yesterday afternoon, Senator Bernie Sanders provided yet another example of his political myopia. Appearing at a Manhattan subway station, he endorsed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — who is currently running for reelection — specifically praising the incumbent mayor’s newly-proposed, statewide “millionaires’ tax.” The policy would crank up state income tax rates for New Yorkers making more than $500,000 a year and generate $700 million in revenues to help repair the crumbling subway system (MTA), and to subsidize discount transit rides for 800,000 of NYC’s poorest residents.

Rehearsing his standard demand that the country’s wealthiest “need to start paying [their] fair share” in taxes, Sanders failed to acknowledge that the revenues required to begin significant MTA overhaul are already locally available. In fact, the city ended the fiscal year in July with a budget surplus of over $4 billion. It appears that Sanders single-mindedly favors any policy that appears to punish the rich, even at the expense of promoting responsible fiscal practices.

So, the city has a massive surplus with their current tax rates — hardly a bad thing, mind you — but de Blasio and Sanders still think it’s a good idea to jack up taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers?

Shouldn’t they be giving the money back?

As so much of their rhetoric centers around punishing the wealthy, it seems likely that they back this policy exclusively because it punishes the rich. Sanders, de Blasio, and their fellow travelers have a tendency to look at the rich as if they’ve done something wrong, something immoral. After all, socialists argue, how else could they have amassed so much wealth?

The wealthy generally work hard and are well-educated. They have had to work plenty of weekends and holidays to get where they are. Now de Blasio and Sanders want to punish them for that hard work.