El-Sayed: We Pay High Taxes for Services Because We Have Wars and Rich Don't Pay Enough

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed argued that we end up paying high taxes for government services “because we end up fighting wars that we shouldn’t be fighting.” And because taxes on the rich aren’t high enough.

After El-Sayed referenced public schools, roads, public transit, garbage pick-up, and clean air, host Martha MacCallum cut in to say, “We pay an enormous amount of taxes in New York and New Jersey for those things.”

El-Sayed then said, “I’m a capitalist because I believe that we leave it to supply and demand, right? To allocate where capital ought to go and the goods that we produce, but I also believe that there’s a basic amount of soil that we need, a good school, clean air, clean water, healthcare, childcare, those are things that just are in the firmament. Now, those are the basic foundations. It’s not disturbing to me to think that government should be able to offer you those basic things, just like you got and I got. I’m so grateful for the amazing public schools that I got to –.”

MacCallum then cut in to say, “But we pay so much money for those services.”

El-Sayed responded, “Well, the reason we pay so much money is because we end up fighting wars that we shouldn’t be fighting. That’s why we end up paying so much money, and because we cut loopholes for the richest people, who pay a lower effective tax rate than we do. So, I would rather us not buy a whole bunch of wars, and I would rather us buy really good schools.”

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