Who Wore It Best: Trump Vs. Ocasio-Cortez

So the ability of hedge fund people, various people - they aren't paying that ordinary income rate. The top marginal rate is now 37 percent. It's about a 20 percent rate, so it has nothing to do with the 39.6 marginal ordinary income rate. And the most important question of all, between the (arguably) most popular man and woman in USA politics, who wore it best?

Gates, who along with his wife Melinda have become some of the world's leading philanthropists, allowed that the tax code could be made 'more progressive, ' but didn't spell out exactly how.

The 63-year-old former Microsoft titan, however, stopped short of endorsing a proposal by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) that Americans making more than $10 million a year should pay a 70 percent marginal tax rate.

While Ocasio-Cortez has been impressive in many ways on social media, she doesn't lead in other metrics, with Sen.

'If you focus on that, you're missing the picture, ' he said. "Now, you finally have some politicians who are so extreme that I'd say, 'No, that's even beyond, '" Gates said.

'We can be more progressive without really threatening income generation - what you have left to decide how to spread around, ' Gates said, noting the tradeoff that many economists point out.

"But once you get to the tippie tops, on your ten millionth, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 percent or 70 percent", Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with "60 Minutes".

Gates said he was in favor of raising the inheritance tax - a sentiment he echoed during a recent podcast interview with the Verge, during which he also deemed Democrats calls for higher income tax rates a "misfocus". 'That doesn't mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate.

Ocasio-Cortez had joined her fellow female lawmakers dressing in all white for the 5 February 2019 State of the Union address in honor of suffragette movement, which paved the way for women's voting rights in the United States.