Harris Surrogate: She Wants to Tax Companies to Fund Subsidies Because Government's Better at Long-Term Investment

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Harris-Walz surrogate Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) stated that it makes sense for 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris to propose raising corporate income taxes to fund investment in subsidies for research and development “Because you’re looking at investment that’s ten years down the line. Making transformative investment and change has always been something our government has been good at.”

Co-host Joe Kernen said, “Tell me the best thing Kamala Harris is proposing to help the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, a 28% corporate tax rate?”

Khanna responded, “The best thing she’s proposing is massive investments in science and technology. Silicon Valley was built on the investments made by DARPA, by NIH, by NSF, a lot of the technology was commercialized, and she’s saying we’ve got to continue to invest in this and we’ve got to invest in AI and the public research on AI.”

Kernen then asked, “Do you think the government, I guess, taxing people to raise money to give to technology or to do research is better than just getting out of the way with regulations for Silicon Valley?”

Khanna responded, “Well, we need sensible regulations, to protect our kids, to make sure — look, on an AI ChatGPT, you don’t want someone asking that, how do you commit suicide? … How do you make a nuclear bomb?”

Kernen then cut in to ask, “But why raise the tax rate to 28 and then subsidize through the government for research and development? You’re taking away on the one hand, and then you’re adding and getting the government involved on the other. Just let them do it. Let them do it at 21%.”

Khanna responded, “Because you’re looking at investment that’s ten years down the line. Making transformative investment and change has always been something our government has been good at. And our tax receipts are only at 17% of GDP right now. In the ’90s, when it was booming, it was around 20%. So, this idea that we are overtaxed is just empirically not true.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett