President Donald Trumps fearless critic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has said that he will, today, be introducing legislation to tax the obscene wealth gains billionaires have made during the public health crisis.
According to Senator Sanders, a few billionaires have doubled if not tripled their fortunes during the coronavirus crisis in what he termed as ‘obscene gains’ as COVID-19 death toll bites the whole world.
I will be introducing legislation tomorrow to tax the obscene wealth gains billionaires have made during the public health crisis.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
Last year, while running for the Democratic nomination, Sanders embraced a proposal that would tax fortunes above $32 million at 1%, with an increasing rate that would top out at 8% over $10 billion.
This time, he’s directed his focus to the profits billionaires have made since the Covid-19 crisis started. Sanders wrote that a 60% tax on the windfall gains from 467 billionaires between March 18 and Aug. 3 could raise more than $420 billion, which he said would be enough to allow Medicare to pay all out-of-pocket health-care expenses for everyone in the U.S. in the next year.
While the pandemic has left millions of Americans unemployed, the collective fortune of America’s billionaire class has surged since January, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The world’s wealthiest family, the Waltons of Walmart Inc., is richer than ever, and tech companies have become so powerful that some of the industry’s moguls had to defend their businesses to Congress last week. The market value of five of the largest American tech companies now represents almost a third of U.S. gross domestic product.
A Sanders tax on billionaire gains during the pandemic would need to get through Congress to take effect, which is virtually impossible given that Republicans control the Senate.
“It is time for the Senate to act on behalf of the working class who are hurting like they have never hurt before, not the billionaire class who are doing phenomenally well and have never had it so good.”
Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s proposed $4 trillion in new taxes avoids such a levy entirely and focuses instead on added income and payroll taxes for high-income individuals.
In his Twitter post, Senator Sanders contrasted the gains made by the likes of Bezos and the Walton family with the U.S.’s continuing high unemployment and growing food insecurity.
Here are the tweets from the self-described democratic socialist.
While over 30 million Americans have seen their $600 a week in unemployment benefits expire, emergency actions taken by the Federal Reserve to prop up the stock market have meant that 467 billionaires saw their wealth go up by over $730 billion since the pandemic began.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
Meanwhile, during the last four months, while the very, very rich have become much richer, American households have seen their wealth go down by $6.5 trillion.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
In other words, in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of an economic meltdown for working families, in the midst of a great struggle regarding systemic racism and police brutality, in the midst of the existential threat of climate change…
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
Let me give you a few examples of the incredible growth in inequality that is taking place during this horrific pandemic.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
While U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing the starvation wages at Walmart, our nation’s largest private employer, the Walton family has made over $20 billion during the pandemic and now has a net worth of over $200 billion.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
While millions of Americans are lining up at emergency food banks because they don’t have enough money to put food on the table, Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook has increased his wealth by more than $37 billion during the pandemic and is now worth over $90 billion.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
Yes, by taxing 60% of the wealth gains made by just 467 billionaires during this pandemic, we could guarantee health care as a right for an entire year. And billionaires would still be able to pocket over $310 billion in gains during the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
We have a choice to make. We can continue to allow the very rich to get much richer while everyone else gets poorer and poorer. Or we can tax the winnings a handful of billionaires made during the pandemic to improve the health and well-being of tens of millions of Americans.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 5, 2020
