WASHINGTON – Hollywood actor Will Ferrell weighed in on the federal tax debate during an interview with The Daily Caller at a screening of his new political comedy “The Campaign.”
TheDC asked Ferrell, who co-hosted a $35,800 per ticket fundraiser for President Barack Obama in February, for his thoughts on Obama’s proposed elimination of Bush-era tax breaks for individuals making over $200,000 per year.
“I think that – I would actually raise the taxes to about 75 percent,” Ferrell said at the screening in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night.
“75 percent – you don’t think that would hurt the economy?” TheDC inquired.
“No, no, no,” Ferrell replied.
“That’s how much you would pay from your income personally?”
Ferrell, who co-founded FunnyOrDie.com and a production company called “Gary Sanchez Productions,” responded, “No, no, no, I have all of my money in my mattress.”
Whether Ferrell was joking or not, the tax rate for the top income bracket in the United States was 77 percent in 1964. According to the National Taxpayers Union, the rate remained in the 70s until 1981, when former President Ronald Reagan and Congress reduced the rate, which dipped to 28 percent by the completion of Reagan’s second term in 1989.
Ferrell, who plays Congressman Cam Brady in the film, appeared at the screening with co-star Zach Galifianakis, who plays congressional candidate Marty Huggins.
Reporters on the red carpet were not able to acquire tickets to the screening of the film, but The New York Times reports that Ferrell’s character is modeled after a “Blue Dog Democrat” and Galifianakis is “more or less a Tea Party-style Republican.”
The film opens in theaters on August 10.