WASHINGTON – A $ 2 billion annual tax increase endorsed by Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Would raise funds for apprenticeship programs by taking money away from some of the richest private universities in the country, including its own alma mater becomes.
The ivory tower tax bill that Cotton introduced this week would affect institutions that teach “un-American ideas,” he said in a written statement.
A native of Dardanelle, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1998 and a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School in 2002, told Fox News that his legislation is aimed at “liberal” schools that have taught their students to “America too.” to hate”.
Cotton turned down requests for an interview with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
Cotton’s 1% tax on foundations would apply to private schools with foundations valued at more than $ 500,000 per full-time student for a total of more than $ 2.5 billion.
Harvard, which awarded $ 645 million in grants and scholarships in fiscal 2020, has the most to lose if Cotton is successful. The foundation’s $ 41.9 billion asset is the largest of any school in the country, and the annual tax would be $ 419 million, assuming the value of the foundation’s assets remained unchanged.
[DOCUMENT: Read Sen. Tom Cotton’s proposal to tax university endowments » arkansasonline.com/514taxact/]
A Harvard spokesman said the school would not comment “at this point”.
Other Ivy League schools would also be heavily taxed, as would Stanford University in California.
Notre Dame University, with $ 12 billion in endowment, would avoid the tax hike due to its membership of the Catholic Church. The legislation provides an exception for institutions that are “religious in nature”.
Cotton appeared on Fox News before introducing the bill and said schools are actively indoctrinating students to hate America and believe it is an oppressive racist nation.
“Our richest colleges and universities have amassed billions of dollars, virtually tax-free, while indoctrinating our youth with un-American ideas,” Cotton said in a written statement Tuesday. “This bill will levy a tax on university mega-foundations and support vocational and apprenticeship programs to create high-paying working-class jobs.”
Legislation would also require schools to distribute at least 5% of their foundations each year. Otherwise, they would be fined.
Legislation, backed by Republicans in Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017, had already imposed an excise tax of 1.4% on schools’ net investment income.
As a candidate for Congress, the Senator signed the Americans’ “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” for tax reform, which promises to oppose any net tax increases, according to the organization’s website.
When asked if Cotton broke his promise by proposing billions in additional taxes over the next decade, spokesman James Arnold denied that the Ivory Tower Tax Act breaks any election promises.
While Cotton has called it a tax, the Ivory Tower Tax Act “isn’t a tax hike – it fills a loophole and protects tax dollars from funding a lively agenda,” Arnold said in a written statement.
The goals of the proposal were never the intended beneficiaries of Cotton’s tax protection pledge, Arnold said.
“Senator Cotton signed a pledge to protect working families in Arkansas from unfair taxes – not the billion dollar university foundations that teach their students politically motivated lies about our nation and its history.”
The Senator has repeatedly criticized the nation’s schools for promoting what he calls “racially divisive” theories, including the concept of systemic racism in American society.
He was particularly critical of curricula related to the 1619 Project, which rephrased American history to focus on slavery and its consequences.
(A group of enslaved Africans were brought to the Virginia Colony in 1619 and arrived a year before the pilgrims reached Plymouth Rock.)
Harvard was founded in 1636 by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to promote “knowledge and piety,” according to the original charter.
A graduate of Dardanelle High School, Cotton spent his college years at Harvard, working on the school newspaper, The Crimson, and earning a bachelor’s degree in just three years.
Cotton “did not receive any financial support from Harvard,” said Arnold.
After briefly studying at Claremont Graduate University in California, Cotton returned to New England, this time to study law.
The campus environment in Cambridge, Massachusetts was liberal but not suffocating, he later recalled.
“While I always felt that I was in the minority of political opinion to the extent that I expressed Republican and Conservative opinions, I never felt that it was an oppressed or oppressed minority or a minority, that could have an impact on the expression of unpopular opinions, “he told a Harvard Law School forum in October 2017.
In classrooms and other settings, Cotton said he could express his opinion “fully and openly”.
“I just think it shows Harvard’s commitment to learning,” he said. “Part of learning is being exposed to new ideas, and sometimes those ideas are uncomfortable, whether they are the ideas of your co-workers or ideas you discover from great thinkers, the books from different times and different cultures wrote with different mindsets. “
These days, however, Cotton’s portrayal of his alma mater is less flattering.
“Senator Cotton believes that most American universities no longer encourage the exchange of political opinions to the detriment of students and the country,” said Arnold. “Unfortunately, Harvard is no exception to this trend.”
When asked by the Democrat Gazette at their Thursday press conference whether President Joe Biden would support Cotton’s ivory tower tax, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “If he’s trying to raise money for something, we think it’s there Many Opportunities We know that a number of companies have benefited tremendously financially during the pandemic. They could pay more taxes. We believe the top 1% of Americans can pay more taxes. And if he had a conversation about worker training would like, we would do this. I love having him with me and having this conversation. “
When asked about Cotton’s criticism of private universities, Psaki said, “Without much detail about where he believes our youth are being indoctrinated, it sounds very mysterious and dangerous.”
Educating students about systemic racism is not “indoctrination. It is actually responsible,” she added.
In a tweet later that afternoon, Cotton wrote, “Psaki is wrong. To burden children with toxic critical racial theory is indoctrination. And the Biden government does it from the White House.”
State Senator Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, whose time as a Harvard student overlapped with Cotton’s time as a law student, said it was “very surprising” that Cotton is pushing for billions in new taxes.
“This seems like an absolute gimmick to get attention and headlines for a future presidential race when it actually does something to help the people of Arkansas with the problems they face every day in their lives,” said he.