​Anti-establishment progressive New Jersey Democrat Lisa McCormick: Tax the Rich or Starve the Future

Anti-establishment progressive New Jersey Democrat Lisa McCormick asserts that Congress could eliminate U.S. budget deficits by raising taxes on the wealthiest individuals and the most profitable corporations, and she has the math to prove it.

As Washington drowns in $1.7 trillion deficits, Congress hands President Donald Trump a $5 trillion debt limit increase, and billionaires add zeros to their fortunes, the anti-establishment Democrat who took on disgraced former US Senator Robert 'Gold Bar Bob' Menendez in the 2018 primary is resurrecting the ghost of Huey Long to propose something truly radical: an America where no one is allowed to hoard more than $50 million.

"We're not asking for revolution—we're demanding basic arithmetic," McCormick told supporters this week, channeling the fiery populism of Long's 1934 Share Our Wealth movement. "Either we tax the oligarchs, or we watch this country collapse under the weight of their greed."

The math is stark. Last year's deficit could have been nearly erased by:

• Slapping a 70% tax rate on incomes over $1 million ($200 billion)
• Ending the billionaire loophole that taxes yachts lower than paychecks ($150 billion)
• Forcing corporations like Amazon to actually pay taxes ($300 billion)
• A 2% wealth tax on fortunes over $50 million ($300 billion)

Add it up? $950 billion—more than half the deficit gone overnight.

McCormick isn't stopping there. She wants to eliminate the Social Security tax cap that lets millionaires contribute less than nurses, and—in her most explosive proposal—legally cap personal wealth at $50 million through what she calls "21st century Share Our Wealth."

The ghost of Huey Long looms large over this plan.

The Louisiana firebrand—who terrified FDR with his mass movement to confiscate fortunes—famously declared in 1934: "No man should own $50 million while children starve."

Now, ninety years later, McCormick argues his cure remains the common sense antidote to America's metastasizing inequality.

"Today's oligarchs make the Robber Barons look like socialists," McCormick fumed. "We've got 735 billionaires sitting on $5 trillion while teachers ration insulin. That's not capitalism—that's a death cult."

Wall Street is already mobilizing against what one hedge fund manager called "the Bolshevik playbook." Conservative economists warn of capital flight, while libertarians shriek about "confiscation."

Yet the data tells a different story:

• When America taxed the rich at 91% under President Eisenhower, the economy boomed.
• 63% of voters—including 47% of Republicans—support wealth taxes.
• The top 1% now evade $163 billion annually through offshore tricks.

"They'll scream. They'll threaten to leave. Let them," McCormick shot back. "Try running Amazon from a Seychelles beach. See how long those servers stay online."

As the IRS abandons President Joe Biden's plan to claw back $500 billion from tax cheats and Trump Republicans slash $1 trillion from Medicaid to finance billionaire tax cuts, McCormick's movement gains steam.

With 68% of Americans believing the economy "rigged for the rich," McCormick's radical math may soon become inevitable arithmetic.

"The question isn't whether America can afford to tax its oligarchs, but whether it can afford not to," said McCormick. "As Huey Long warned before his assassination: 'When people are starving, they don't follow rules. They follow whoever brings bread.'"