Prosperous candidate promises prosperity
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who’s put $2.3 million of her own money into her campaign for Congress, wants the government to send a $1,000 check every month to any adult earning less than $75,000 a year.
A website promoting the “People’s Prosperity Plan,” and Cherfilus-McCormick’s, features a large block of type proclaiming “$1,000 A MONTH FOR YOU.”
The plan would cost, by the candidate’s own estimate, $2.2 trillion. That’s equivalent to what the Congressional Budget Office estimates all individual and corporate income taxes will total in the current fiscal year.
Cherfilus-McCormick said she’d start paying for the program with a $400 billion “automation tax” on employers that eliminate jobs because they’re shifting to automation and a $200 billion “data tax” on sales of private information.
Bullet points on the website also suggest a $1 trillion value-added tax, which would operate like a national sales tax; a $300 billion “wealth tax,” and a $250 billion tax on carbon, emissions of which contribute to global climate change.
Even though the proposal is exceedingly unlikely to become law, it’s the kind of thing that could win her support from some voters, said Kevin Wagner, a political scientist at Florida Atlantic University.
Cherfilus-McCormick dismisses questions about whether it has any chance of becoming reality. She pointed to the temporary, monthly payments that just started going to families with children.
“There’s been some other people who are naysayers, some other candidates who are saying I’m selling pipe dreams. But it just goes to show you why our district is in poverty,” she said. “I’m the only one who has the audacity to dream different, and do something different. But that’s how I’ve been successful in my personal life. So I’m not afraid to put forth a bold policy.”