DSA Co-Chair Fumbles ‘Taxing the Rich’ Answer

A Democratic Socialists of America co-chair had a rough outing on The New Yorker Radio Hour after being pressed on what the group’s familiar slogan about taxing the rich actually means. Megan Romer, one of the DSA’s two national co-chairs, appeared unable to give a clear answer during a Friday interview with magazine editor David Remnick, and the exchange quickly spread across social media.

Remnick asked Romer to explain what “taxing the hell out of them” means in practical terms. Romer laughed awkwardly and said she did not have “like a solid” answer. When Remnick pushed her to be more specific, she called it “a good question” and shifted to a broad statement about democracy, spending needs, and not depending on millionaires because that, she said, means people are still being exploited. The moment landed badly online, where critics mocked the clip and one commentator said Romer seemed like someone who could not answer a simple question after taking on student debt.

The interview then moved to another issue that has long divided activists and policymakers: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Remnick asked whether the DSA favored a two-state solution or a binational one-state arrangement in which Israelis and Palestinians would live under one government. Romer answered that the organization’s position was “a free Palestine with a capital in Jerusalem,” which she said could be read as support for a one-state solution. She did not address what that would mean for the roughly 10 million people living in Israel.

When Remnick followed up by asking whether she would have accepted the Camp David Summit proposal, Romer again struggled. She said she would need to review the specifics because she did not know them off the top of her head. The exchange drew more attention because the Camp David effort is one of the best-known U.S.-backed attempts to broker peace between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.