A group of liberal senators on Thursday proposed taxing billionaires’ gains during the pandemic to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses incurred by the public.
“The legislation I am introducing today will tax the obscene wealth gains billionaires have made during this extraordinary crisis to guarantee healthcare as a right to all for an entire year,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on releasing the details of the bill.
The legislation, the “Make Billionaires Pay Act,” applies a 60% on large, unexpected gains received by billionaires during the pandemic.
There have been some studies showing that billionaire wealth has increased during the pandemic.
U.S. billionaire wealth went up $685 billion between March 18 and Aug. 5, according to the progressive think tank Institute for Policy Studies. Sanders cited similar figures in a statement introducing the legislation. Those figures, though, represent wealth regained after stocks crashed in March — in other words, they omit the losses incurred by billionaires and count only the subsequent recovery.
Specifically, the bill creates a one-time, 60% tax on individuals with a net asset value of more than $1 billion as of the end of this year. What portion of those assets would be subjected to the tax would be determined by the treasury secretary after the bill is enacted.
Billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk would pay $42 billion and $27.5 billion in taxes, respectively, under this bill, according to Sanders.
If enacted, the bill would raise over $420 billion between March 18 and Aug. 5, according to the left-leaning tax think tank Americans for Tax Fairness and Institute for Policy.
Sanders was joined by Democratic Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York when introducing his bill.
