Ocasio-Cortez Claims American Revolution Targeted Billionaires of the Time

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told an audience at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics that the American Revolution stood against the billionaires of that time.

She framed it as part of the country's heritage. "I want to talk about how this is in the heritage of our country, because America was founded … you look at Thomas Jefferson writing to Madison in revolt of British aristocracy. The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time. And we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and power and the state that the voices of everyday people did not exist," Ocasio-Cortez said.

The congresswoman has also called billionaires a capitalist myth. She insisted that "you can’t earn a billion dollars" and added, "You can’t earn that, right? And so you have to create a myth … you have to create a myth of earning it."

Critics reject her view of the Founders. Many were wealthy themselves, including Robert Morris Jr., known as the Financier of the Revolution. Adjusted for inflation, Morris would rank as a billionaire today.

The Founders championed economic freedom alongside political liberty. Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" appeared the same year as the Declaration of Independence and gained quick support from the founding generation. They drew from John Locke's ideas on life, liberty, and property, which shaped documents like the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Fifth Amendment.

James Madison wrote in his 1792 essay "Property" that good government "secures to every man whatever is his own." Chief Justice John Marshall later stated, "The power to tax is the power to destroy."

Ocasio-Cortez's comments come amid left-wing pushes for higher taxes on the rich. The top 1% of income earners pay over 40% of federal taxes, a share that rises to 70% for the top 10%. Proposals include a "billionaires’ tax" in California and millionaire taxes in states like Washington and Virginia. Figures like Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez advocate federal versions.

The author of "Rage and the Republic" argues the Founders feared mobocracy and the tyranny of the majority. Ocasio-Cortez and similar voices revive economic factionalism through eat-the-rich rhetoric, the author contends.