Mississippi Democratic Senator-elect Scott Colom said he would push to eliminate federal income taxes for anyone earning under $75,000 a year, but when pressed on how to pay for it, he told an interviewer he would need time to study the budget and find the money.
Colom made the remarks during an interview aired Thursday on MS NOW’s “The Weeknight.” Co-host Symone Sanders Townsend asked him what bill he could pass that would actually lower costs for people in Mississippi and across the country.
“Well, the first bill I would propose — and I think we might get a chance to get some Republicans to support it, and a chance that President Trump would sign it — is no federal income tax for anybody making under 75,000 a year,” Colom said.
Sanders Townsend followed up by asking how he would pay for the proposal.
“Listen, we’ll figure it out. We find ways to pay for wars. I’m going to learn the budget system and figure out where the money is,” Colom said.
Colom went on to point to what he called unfairness in the current tax system, singling out wealthy individuals who borrow against stock holdings to live off debt rather than realizing income and paying taxes on it.
“There’s a lot of stuff that’s happening in our tax system that’s unfair. I don’t think it’s great that we’ve got people borrowing against their stock, living off the debt, so they don’t have to pay income tax. That’s something that needs to get fixed. We can get a lot of money if we focus on fixing that,” he said.
He said the larger goal has to be getting money into people’s pockets. “But we’ve got to get money in people’s pockets. People are struggling out there. And I think too many of our leaders are not listening to those voters. And we’ve got to make sure we’re listening, because if we listen, we learn. And if we learn, we can deliver,” Colom said.
Colom did not offer specific budget figures or legislative language for the proposal during the interview.
