Pushing the capital gains tax modestly upward might not have the same emotional appeal to progressives as raising the top tax rate to a theatrical number like 70 percent, but it is critical to generating revenue. Estimating exactly how much revenue this would produce is difficult, because it depends on how successful the wealthy are at hiding their capital gains in other ways. But for comparison, Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion would produce around $70 billion per year if there is no income shifting, around 2 percent of tax revenue; based on figures .. https://www.cbo.gov/system/files?file=2018-12/54667-budgetoptions.pdf .. from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, taxing capital gains as ordinary income would raise a similar amount. And implementing both proposals together — taxing capital gains as ordinary income and raising the top rates — would make Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal lose much less revenue from income shifting. It still would not produce a European-style welfare state, because European welfare states are financed by heavy taxes on workers. But this plan could produce an additional 4 percent of tax revenue — enough to make a down payment on a Green New Deal, or to allow more Americans to buy into Medicare.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
