Mark Cuban Wants a 44% Top Tax Rate, a $20 Minimum Wage at Big Companies and Social Security Tax on Pay Up to $5 Million — 'Hate on This All You Want'

Plenty of people had opinions after the midterms. Very few showed up with a tax plan.

Billionaire Cost Plus Drugs co-founder Mark Cuban did. He posted a list of tax hikes, wage floors and spending cuts that he says would start shrinking the federal deficit.

“Actually it means that we have run out of time believing Ideology is a Strategy,” Cuban wrote on X Saturday. “We have to take steps that are not based on slogans.”

He didn’t spare either side of the aisle. “Remove regulation is not a strategy. More government is not a strategy,” he wrote. “The math is the math. We have to reduce the deficit and spending.”

A Wish List With Price Tags Attached

Cuban’s starting point was the top of the income ladder.

“We need to raise taxes on the wealthy without diminishing investment that creates jobs, raises and improved productivity,” he wrote.

His first ask was “Take the top tax bracket to 44 pct for earned income.” The top federal rate is 37% today. Cuban has also said he’s proud to pay his own nine-figure tax bill. He wants higher top corporate income tax rates too, plus a corporate alternative minimum tax.

Then came the paycheck piece. Cuban called for a $20 minimum wage at companies above a sales or earnings threshold, which he didn’t specify, adjusted for each local media market. The federal minimum has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Cuban has long argued that when big employers pay too little, taxpayers end up subsidizing their profits.

He also wants Social Security tax applied to earnings from $1 million to $5 million. Right now, the tax stops at the first $192,300 of earnings in 2027.

The rest of the list hits Washington and Wall Street. Every federal agency would cut spending 1% a year for five years. Public companies that don’t pay at least $25 an hour would see the stock buyback tax rise to 4% from today’s 1%. His advice to companies that don’t like that idea was to invest the money, a line he fixed in a follow-up reply after a typo.

The urgency comes from the numbers. The national debt topped $40 trillion for the first time in August, according to the Treasury Department.

The Healthcare Plug Was Right On Schedule

Anyone who follows Cuban knew healthcare would make the list.

“Pass the break up big medicine bill. Check my timeline for all the other healthcare recommendations,” he wrote.

That’s the bipartisan from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).  It would bar companies from owning both a health insurer and a pharmacy benefit manager. Just a day after his deficit post, Cuban said healthcare giants that hide care costs should be broken up. He called for bipartisan legislation that would make every healthcare contract public.

It’s the same fight behind Cost Plus Drugs, which he launched in 2022 to sell medications with transparent pricing and cut out the middlemen.

The Replies Came With Calculators

Cuban saw the pushback coming. “Hate on this all you want,” he wrote.

One reply said “the $2T deficit and $40T debt say the feel-good part is running on borrowed time.” Another user asked why the wealthy aren’t taxed when they borrow against stock portfolios to fund their lifestyles while avoiding capital gains taxes.

Cuban framed the whole list as a reaction to the election itself. “The midterms were not a confirmation or rebuke of Dems or Republicans. It was a rebuke of the way we do politics and run this country,” he wrote. “We need to be honest. Transparent. And stop pushing ideology.”

Nobody has ever balanced a budget with a bumper sticker, and Cuban’s list is his case that Washington should stop trying. None of it is law, and he isn’t running anything in Congress. Still, one post put a 44% tax bracket, a $20 wage floor and the fight against healthcare middlemen back in front of a newly reshuffled Washington.

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