Musk Wants to Use Money Democrats Would Tax for Mars Plans

(Bloomberg) -- The world's richest person, Elon Musk, said he plans to use his money to “get humanity to Mars and preserve the light of consciousness” as Democrats weigh a billionaires' tax for the wealthiest Americans that could hit him hardest of all.

The Tesla Inc. CEO was responding to a tweet by Washington Post reporter Christian Davenport, who said that Musk and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos's tax bills under the proposed plan -- as much as $50 billion and $44 billion over the first five years -- could pay for a mission to Mars.

Bezos and Musk have a combined net worth that approached $500 billion Wednesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The tax plan promoted by some congressional Democrats explicitly targeted appreciated public shareholdings, which have been a main driver of billionaires' steep wealth gains in recent years.

Musk, whose net worth reached about $292 billion, has been particularly vocal on Twitter against the billionaires' tax. He argued in an earlier tweet that spending is the real problem and that taxing all billionaires at 100% would only make a “small dent” in the U.S. national debt.

Elon Musk Says Taxing Billionaires Won't Ease Debt Burden

In another tweet, Musk said that the unrealized capital gains tax proposal targeted at billionaires could eventually be widened to the middle class.

“Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you,” he said.

Billionaire's Tax Sets Ultra-Rich on Hunt for Ways to Avoid It

Democrats are targeting tax increases on the highest earners as among the ways to offset the cost of President Joe Biden's social-spending bill that could approach $2 trillion and enact many of the party's long-time goals. Yet they haven't agreed on how to do it, one of many issues the party is struggling to agree on as talks continue.

The so-called billionaires' tax plan from Senator Ron Wyden and others would target a narrow slice of the super-rich -- those with at least $1 billion in assets or income of $100 million for three consecutive years -- and force them to pay an annual tax on unrealized gains for publicly traded assets like stocks.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal said Wednesday that there isn't support for it to get through Congress. He said the House is instead negotiating with the Senate to include a further 3% surtax on top of the highest income rate, for those earning more than $10 million a year.