Bernie Sanders proposes a billionaire wealth tax that could pay $3,000 to US households
The progressive Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, is campaigning to create urgency around the need to pass a proposed billionaire wealth tax in California that could potentially pay every American citizen a share. Alongside Democratic Representative Rohit Khanna of California, the populist politician unveiled a bill on Monday that would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on American billionaires, which, according to his office's estimate, is about 938 people. Among the many proposals for the use of the funds is the flashy idea of depositing $3,000 to each American in households that make $150,000 or less in a year, according to an official press release.
The tax proposal was propagated by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West to arguably close the $100 billion gap created in health care funding by the Medicaid cuts made by President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the expired ACA tax credits. The rest of the funds are proposed to go toward food assistance and education. According to an economic analysis from the University of California at Berkeley, the tax would raise $4.4 trillion over 10 years, The New York Times reported. Thus, presenting the bill, the Vermont senator and Ro Khanna made some interesting proposals. The catchiest of all was the $3,000 direct payment to Americans, which means households with four members who make $150,000 annually or less would get $12,000 a year.
Beyond that, the duo also proposed to make a slew of changes including expansion of Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing loss for seniors, build, renovate, and preserve affordable homes, ensure families don't spend over 7% of their income on childcare, establish a minimum salary of $60,000 for public school teachers, and expand Medicaid for seniors and people with disabilities. Kicking off the campaign, Sen Sanders came out swinging at the billionaires of America. "The billionaire class no longer sees itself as part of American society. They see themselves as something separate and apart, like the oligarchs," he said at an event at Wiltern, as per SF Gate. He added that these billionaires have created businesses that are "changing the face of the Earth" and "they are saying to you and to everybody in America, who the hell do you think you are."
While the Independent Senator is pushing hard, the proposal is unlikely to become law under the GOP-controlled Congress. However, as per Business Insider, the policy could influence Democratic policies, as Rep. Ro Khanna may in the future run for presidential candidacy. In Khanna's home state, California, there are over 200 billionaires who would be on the hook to pay. With discussions around the proposed bill ramping up, many have relocated to other states to avoid the high taxes. Sanders has called out such wealthy earners and specifically mentioned billionaires, such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who, according to his estimates, would owe $11 billion, $11 billion, and $42 billion each in taxes in the first year.
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