Read my back: time to end US inequality
● The emblazoned message on the white fabric was bold, blood red and on brand: TAX THE RICH.
Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the Met Gala — the buzziest event in the New York glitterati calendar — to make a statement by wearing a dress with the message splashed across the back.
The message itself wasn’t surprising; she has been one of the biggest supporters of raising taxes on the rich — to help pay for more social services — and of narrowing the wealth gap between rich and poor. But the latest setting in which AOC — as she is known — chose to express it drew attention.
The annual event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) is the haunt of celebrities, designers, billionaires and other members of the jet set who are willing to pay $35,000 (about R510,000) to attend. The benefit pays for the annual budget of the museum’s costume institute, according to the Met’s president and CEO, Daniel Weiss.
“We need to have a conversation in this country about working families,” Ocasio-Cortez said when asked to comment on her dress and its message.
The gown was designed by Aurora James, founder of New York shoe and handbag line Brother Vellies, and the 15 Percent Pledge, which asks retailers to dedicate 15% of their shelves to products made by black-owned businesses.
Ocasio-Cortez is making the statement just as President Joe Biden’s drive to raise taxes on the wealthy is getting diluted by Democratic allies in Congress — undermining his chances of fully delivering on his campaign pledge to curb inequality.
On Monday, House of Representatives Democrats released a package of tax increases that scaled back some of the ambitious elements of a pitch made by the Biden administration in May.
That reflects the political reality of a Senate that requires moderate Democrats to vote en masse for the final package, given the thin margins of the party’s control of the chamber. But it comes at the cost of support from progressives — needed to fire up the electoral base in 2022.
For example, several House Democrats have said they won’t vote for Biden’s $3.5-trillion spending programme for education, health and climate programmes if it doesn’t address the $10,000 cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes, or Salt. But some party progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez, have called the Salt deduction a giveaway to the rich, saying most of the benefits flow to high-income households.
Ocasio-Cortez said the message on her dress was “about having a real conversation about fairness and equity in our system”.