Every leading candidate in the party’s 2020 field — from relative moderates Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar, to liberals Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — has proposed trillions of dollars in new taxes on businesses and wealthy Americans. In each case, and to wildly varying degrees, the money would fund new government spending in areas like health care, education, housing, and climate change, and on a range of other programs meant to help the poor and the middle class.

WASHINGTON — The Democratic primary race remains highly unpredictable, but there is one thing we already know for sure about the party’s next presidential nominee: She or he has big plans to tax the very rich.


Democratic candidates have long campaigned on higher taxes for the rich, but this year’s set of plans represents a striking escalation from past party nominees. They are a product of what longtime Democratic policy hands describe as a confluence of inequality trends, grass-roots pressure, the severing of some candidates’ ties with the wealthy liberal donor class, and a Democratic voter backlash against the 2017 tax cuts signed by President Trump, which delivered their largest benefits to corporations and high earners.

In a campaign where the leading candidates have sparred over electability and progressivity, the Democrats’ tax and spending plans provide one of the most vivid illustrations of how widely their ambitions for the size of government diverge — and how far their party has moved in the last four years toward taxing the small slice of Americans who reap the economy’s largest rewards.

The most modest of the leading Democrats’ proposals, Biden’s, would raise taxes by more than twice as much as Hillary Clinton proposed in 2016. Buttigieg and Klobuchar would raise them by twice as much as Biden. Warren would raise taxes by three times as much as Buttigieg and Klobuchar. Sanders has not yet detailed all his proposed tax increases, but to cover his full spending ambitions, he would need to raise even more revenue than Warren.


Even Bloomberg, a billionaire himself, would raise taxes on the rich and corporations by an estimated $5 trillion, which is about 50 percent more than Biden would.

“The ground has shifted for everybody,” said Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress in Washington and a former top aide to Clinton. “People believe the taxes are too low on the very wealthy. That’s become a cornerstone belief.”

In many areas, the leading candidates’ tax plans overlap or even mirror one another. Where they disagree is on which specific new taxes to pursue — and just how much money to attempt to raise.

BERNIE SANDERS: Biggest spender, but lacks specifics

Sanders’ policy agenda is by far the most expensive of the leading candidates, though estimates vary. The cost of his policy plans on just a handful of topics — health care, higher education, housing, and climate change — could exceed $50 trillion over 10 years. By contrast, the federal government is projected to spend roughly $60 trillion over the next decade.

A huge chunk of that spending would go toward Medicare for All, the single-payer health insurance system he has championed. A single-payer system would require $34 trillion in additional federal spending over a decade, according to the Urban Institute.

Sanders has declined to specify how he would pay for it, though he released a list of financing options last year, including a 4 percent “income-based premium” that employees would pay.


He has also proposed an annual tax on household wealth that would apply to married couples worth more than $32 million, a proposal that would raise an estimated $4.35 trillion over a decade.

Sanders has made clear he would significantly increase income taxes on the wealthiest Americans. In his 2016 presidential campaign, he called for a 52 percent top marginal income tax rate. He would also expand the estate tax and increase Social Security taxes on high earners.

ELIZABETH WARREN: Not just ‘2 cents’ from super-rich

Warren’s signature “2 cents” wealth tax proposal would kick in on net worth over $50 million and would raise an estimated $3.5 trillion over a decade. The tax would increase to 6 cents on the dollar for net worth over $1 billion.

Warren would raise taxes on wealthy people in several other ways. She wants to reverse Trump’s tax cuts for high earners, which lowered the top personal income tax rate to 37 percent from 39.6 percent. She would also revamp the estate tax, and increase taxes on capital gains for the top 1 percent of households. In addition, she would increase Social Security payroll taxes on high earners and create a new Social Security tax on their investment income.

In addition to a Medicare for All program that would require an estimated $20.5 trillion in new federal spending over 10 years, Warren’s proposals include a sweeping set of new programs addressing areas like Social Security, climate change, higher education, K-12 schools, and housing. Taken together, those proposals and her Medicare for All plan have an estimated 10-year price tag of more than $30 trillion.


AS FOR THE MODERATES: Smaller plans for new taxes, and far less spending

Several other leading Democratic candidates have smaller aspirations for taxing the rich. But they still want to do so.

Bloomberg offered plans this month to raise taxes on the rich and corporations by what his campaign estimated would be $5 trillion over 10 years. He would do so by raising taxes on capital gains, labor income, inherited wealth, and other income streams, all limited to high-earning Americans. Under Bloomberg’s plan, the top income tax rate would be 39.6 percent, with an additional 5 percent surcharge for incomes above $5 million.

Buttigieg would also set the top income tax rate at 39.6 percent. He would increase Social Security taxes and capital gains taxation for high earners, and he would expand the estate tax.

The Buttigieg campaign said the new spending it has proposed — on areas like health care, climate change, and child care — adds up to more than $7 trillion over a decade. His health care plan, which would create a public health insurance plan that people could buy into, would cost $1.5 trillion, according to his campaign.

Biden would also raise the top income tax rate to 39.6 percent. He would tax capital gains as ordinary income for taxpayers with more than $1 million in income, and he would cap the value of tax breaks for high earners.


Three of Biden’s major plans — on climate, health care, and higher education — add up to $3.2 trillion. By itself, his health care plan, which like Buttigieg’s would offer a government plan that consumers could buy into, has a price tag of $750 billion, according to the Biden team.

Klobuchar would also raise income taxes on high earners, and she would impose a top rate of 44.6 percent for those earning above $500,000. She would also increase Social Security taxes and capital gains taxes for high earners and expand the estate tax.