JONATHAN TURLEY: Abdul El-Sayed’s wealth-tax fantasy could wreck the Michigan economy

Dr.

Abdul El-Sayed is tackling a new national crisis: the excess of money held by some tragically wealthy citizens.

In his interview this week with Fox News’ Jesse Watters, the Michigan Democratic Senate candidate not only reaffirmed his call for a wealth tax but suggested that wealthy people really do not have much use for money that would be better left to the public.

El-Sayed needs money.

A lot of money.

He has called for massive new programs to fund Medicare-for-All, reparations , roads and other programs promised to Michigan voters.

He is only the latest Democratic leader to support a wealth tax, which would, in my opinion, be unconstitutional at the federal level and disastrous at the state level.

ABDUL EL-SAYED GRILLED ON PAST STATEMENTS ON SHARIA LAW AND WHITE SUPREMACY, TAXING THE RICH Earlier in the week, El-Sayed expressed full support for a wealth tax, including on non-billionaires.

He declared on a podcast: "I also think we got to start taxing wealth for people who now have over $100 million.

I mean at that point like what are gonna even do with more money?" Figures such as Rep.

Ro Khanna, D-Calif., have also called for a wealth tax on millionaires, not just billionaires.

As some of us predicted, the use of billionaires was simply a strategic and political framing.

Once politicians succeed in opening up this untapped wealth to taxation, they will gradually work down the tax rolls as they acquire a windfall in new revenue.

PROGRESSIVES WANT TO TAX BILLIONAIRES FIRST, AND YOU'RE NEXT ON THE LIST I discuss the tax in my book, " Rage and the Republic ," as an example of the "eat-the-rich" politics used by demagogues from ancient Athens to the French Revolution.