Bernie Sanders hasn’t decided just how much he wants to raise taxes, but he is promising this:
“It will not be as high as the number under Dwight D. Eisenhower, which was 90%.”
“I’m not that much of a socialist, compared to Eisenhower,” Sanders said to laughs at the second Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Vermont senator, a political independent who describes himself as a “democratic socialist,” has made tax hikes — to be used to pay for his ambitious social programs — an unabashed part of his campaign pitch.
The top marginal tax rate in 2015 is 39.6%. During the Eisenhower administration, the highest rate never dipped below 91%, according to the Tax Foundation.