Howard Schultz rips Warren's 'ridiculous' plan to tax the super wealthy

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz hasn’t announced whether he’ll run for president, but that didn’t stop him from taking aim at one of the key economic proposals of one of his would-be opponents.

In an interview on NPR’s “Morning Edition” aired Tuesday, Schultz, who’s considering an independent run for president, dinged liberal priorities like "Medicare for all" and tuition-free college and said Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposal of increasing taxes on the super wealthy was “ridiculous.”

“Free Medicare for all, government-paid, free college for all — first of all, there’s no free. I mean nothing is free,” he said, telling NPR he sees a “dire need” for “comprehensive tax reform” to reduce the deficit, though he offered no specifics.

“There are a number of areas here that need to be addressed,” Schultz said, insisting “I’m not trying to dodge any question, but I feel like what we have today is an unfair system.”

But he argued that Warren’s “ultramillionaire” tax — which would create a 2 percent wealth tax on those with a net worth above $50 million and impose an additional 1 percent on net worth above $1 billion — was showboating.