yahoo news | Bernie Sanders calls out Bezos, Musk, Bloomberg, and Buffett in billionaire tax ...
Bernie Sanders has renewed his call for a billionaire wealth tax, publishing a scathing op‑ed in The Guardian that names the nation’s richest individuals and lays out stark figures on inequality. He argues that the current tax code is “totally rigged—written by representatives of the wealthy to benefit the wealthy,” noting that 60 % of Americans live paycheck‑to‑paycheck and 85 million are uninsured or underinsured. Citing a Rand Corporation estimate that nearly $80 trillion has shifted from the bottom 90 % to the top 1 % over the past half‑century, Sanders declares that “the richest people in America have never ever had it so good.”
In partnership with Rep. Ro Khanna, Sanders introduced the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act,” which would levy a 5 % tax on the estimated 938 U.S. billionaires, projected to raise $4.4 trillion over ten years. The legislation would allocate the first‑year revenue to $3,000 tax‑credit checks for anyone earning under $150,000, fund the repeal of Medicaid cuts, expand universal childcare, guarantee a $60,000 minimum salary for teachers, extend Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing, and finance the construction of 7 million affordable housing units. Sanders highlights the disparity in effective tax rates, pointing out that Elon Musk’s $805 billion net worth is taxed at only 3.3 %—lower than the 8.4 % paid by an average truck driver—while Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg each pay rates well under 2 %, compared with double‑digit rates for typical workers such as teachers, nurses, and firefighters.
Public opinion appears to be shifting in favor of such measures. Polls show Californians supporting a one‑time billionaire tax by a two‑to‑one margin to protect health‑care coverage, and a majority of New Yorkers backing a proposed 2 % surtax on millionaires and billionaires. Nationwide, more than six in ten Americans believe the wealthy and large corporations pay too little, and one in five consider extreme wealth morally wrong. Nevertheless, many ultra‑wealthy individuals—Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Howard Schultz, and others—are relocating assets and residences to states like Florida, anticipating or reacting to potential tax changes, underscoring the political and economic stakes surrounding Sanders’ proposed tax.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/bernie-sanders-calls-bezos-musk-163411806.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
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