Bezos says – Jeff Bezos argued that higher taxes on billionaires won’t directly help a hypothetical teacher in Queens, backing a view that many Americans should pay little or no income tax. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani rejected the claim, pointing to the billions he
When Jeff Bezos stepped into an interview with CNBC this week, he didn’t just debate tax rates in the abstract. He asked listeners to picture a nurse in Queens and a teacher affected by the day-to-day cost of living—then questioned whether more money from billionaires would change anything.
Bezos said he believes the bottom half of income earners should pay 0% in income taxes. He framed his argument around a comparison: a nurse in Queens. he said. is paying more than $1. 000 a month in taxes. Bezos added that the bottom half of earners pays only 3% of the taxes, saying “It’s only 3 percent. We can find 3 percent.”.
But the sharpest exchange came when Bezos addressed Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax proposal. which targets luxury second homes owned by absentee residents in New York City. Bezos called it “a fine thing for New York to do. ” yet he said the political strategy around it—especially the push to “villainize” billionaires—misses the point.
“Why is a nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year paying more than $1,000 a month in taxes,” Bezos told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin. He argued that trying to solve public problems by turning certain people into targets doesn’t work.
“When you don’t know how to solve a problem, create a villain, blame them, but it won’t solve the problem. The only thing that will solve the problem is skill,” he said.
The mayor. who has centered his tax strategy on saving everyday New Yorkers money by bumping taxes on corporations and the ultra wealthy. struck back quickly. Mamdani responded directly to Bezos’s claim that increasing the taxes he pays would not translate into help for someone like a Queens teacher.
In his comments, Mamdani pushed back on Bezos’s certainty, saying that the former telecom and tech titan’s idea doesn’t match how real life plays out. Mamdani also rejected the implication that his approach would not produce measurable benefits.
Bezos, for his part, doubled down on the same theme. “I pay billions of dollars in taxes. …If people want me to pay more billions, then let’s have that debate. But don’t pretend… that that’s going to solve the problem,” Mamdani said—adding a direct challenge aimed at Bezos’s framing.
Bezos responded with a more personal, blunt line: “You could double the taxes I pay and it’s not going to help that teacher in Queens, I promise you.”
Mamdani didn’t let that moment pass. In a post on X, he wrote: “I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ.”
Jeff Bezos Zohran Mamdani New York City pied-à-terre tax CNBC Andrew Ross Sorkin billionaire taxes teachers in Queens income tax X