Senator Chuck Schumer (cropped) by United States Senate is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Vice President Kamala Harris wants to increase taxes on capital gains and dividends to a rate of 44.6%, a level previously opposed for being too radical by both former President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Dem-N.Y.) and which Obama labeled as “confiscatory.”

The Harris campaign officially endorsed a laundry list of new and higher taxes included in the Biden-Harris administration’s fiscal year 2025 budget that would increase taxes by $5 trillion over ten years. The Harris-backed plan would tax long-term capital gains at ordinary income tax levels with a top rate of 44.6%.

Here is a direct quote from the Biden-Harris budget: “Together, the proposals would increase the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends to 44.6 percent.“

Yes, you read that correctly: A Kamala Harris capital gains and dividends tax rate of 44.6%

Even Schumer Opposed Taxing Capital Gains as Ordinary Income

Schumer previously noted his opposition to taxing capital gains as ordinary income during a 2012 press conference aired on CSPAN. Schumer states that a 39.6% capital gains tax rate – significantly lower than Harris’s 44.6% rate – would be “too much.”

Below is Schumer’s exact quote along with video from the press conference:

“It is too much to treat capital gains the same as ordinary income. We don’t need a 39.6% rate on capital gains.”

Obama: Taxing Capital Gains at Ordinary Income Tax Rates is “Confiscatory”

In a 2008 CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo, President Barack Obama rejected raising the capital gains tax rate to “confiscatory rates” which he defined as above 28 percent.

Here is the transcript of Obama’s interview:

BARTIROMO: But since you ended with taxes, let me pick up right there, for investors. 

Sen. OBAMA: Yeah. 

BARTIROMO: How do you plan to change the tax code when it comes to capital gains? How high will that 15 percent rate go? 

Sen. OBAMA: Well, you know, I haven’t given a firm number. Here’s my belief, that we can’t go back to some of the, you know, confiscatory rates that existed in the past that distorted sound economics. And I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton, which was the 28 percent.