Bernie Sanders Calls for Taxing Titans’ ‘Obscene’ Wealth Gains During Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders plans to introduce legislation to tax what he called “obscene wealth gains” during the coronavirus crisis.

The “Make Billionaires Pay Act” would tax 60% of the increase in the ultra-wealthy's net worth from March 18 through the end of the year and use the revenue to cover out-of-pocket health-care expenses of all Americans, according to a statement from Sanders's office. The bill, which would apply to individuals with assets exceeding $1 billion as of Dec. 31, 2020, is co-sponsored by Democratic senators Ed Markey and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Sanders, an independent from Vermont and a self-described democratic socialist, made the announcement in a Twitter post Wednesday evening. Last year, while running for the Democratic presidential nomination, he embraced a proposal that would tax fortunes above $32 million at 1%, increasing to 8% for those over $10 billion.

Sanders's tax proposal would require approval of both houses of Congress, which is highly unlikely given Republican control of the Senate.

And while the pandemic has renewed progressive demands to soak the rich, many Democrats have steered clear of backing a direct wealth tax, which some have argued would be unconstitutional and raise less than advertised. Presidential candidate Joe Biden's proposed $4 trillion in new taxes avoids such a levy entirely and focuses instead on increasing income and payroll taxes for high-income individuals.

With his latest proposal, Sanders is focused on the increase in asset values of the super-rich since the Covid-19 crisis started. The 60% wealth tax on the “windfall gains” of billionaires from March until August alone would raise $421.7 billion, according to his office, which cited data from Americans for Tax Fairness, a progressive advocacy group. That would be enough to allow Medicare to pay all out-of-pocket expenses for everyone in the U.S., his office said.

“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,” Sanders said in a statement.

Read more: World's wealthiest family gets $1 billion richer every two weeks

While the pandemic has left millions of Americans unemployed, the collective fortunes of America's 0.001% has surged since January, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The world's wealthiest family, the Waltons of Walmart Inc., is richer than ever, while tech company executives last week were made to defend their company's profits and market power to Congress. The value of five of the largest American tech companies represents almost a third of U.S. gross domestic product.

The net worth of the world's richest person, Amazon.com Inc.'s Jeff Bezos, has gained $74.9 billion this year alone, pushing his fortune to $190 billion. Elon Musk of Tesla Inc. has added $42.5 billion, taking his wealth to $70 billion, while Facebook Inc.'s Mark Zuckerberg is $16.2 billion richer at $94.5 billion.

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