Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told CNN’s Jake Tapper that higher taxes wouldn’t be a problem because of “patriotism.”
During a pre-recorded interview that aired on Sunday’s “State of the Union,” Booker claimed that the threat of higher taxes wouldn’t be enough to prevent people from voting against President Donald Trump in his 2020 re-election bid.
“We live in a nation with far more patriotism than people are expressing. What I mean is folks want the best for the country,” Booker explained. (RELATED: Cory Booker: I Am Not A Socialist!)
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Anchor Jake Tapper began by asking Booker how he would “make a pitch” to voters when the economy is booming.
Booker initially responded by explaining that, at least in his neighborhood, people weren’t feeling economic improvements. When Tapper pointed out that wage increases and unemployment indices were seeing improvements that were never seen “during the Obama years,” Booker immediately pivoted to give former President Obama credit for the improvements he had just dismissed as negligible.
“I love that Trump is taking credit for a recovery that started under Obama,” he smiled.
Then Tapper pressed him on the fact that most Democrats, including Booker, were pushing policies that would require tax increases. “What’s the counterargument?” he asked.
“We live in a nation with far more patriotism than people are expressing,” Booker replied, going on to argue that patriotism and consideration for fellow citizens would lead Americans to see past their own personal economics to understand that they should be glad for the opportunity to invest in each other.
“This is a moment where across this country, farm towns, factory towns, cities to suburbs, we have so much common pain where Americans are seeing, from the cost of prescription drugs, cost of college, we’re all hurting because we have not designed an economy that invests in each other,” he concluded.