Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) introduced legislation on Monday that would impose a tax on billionaires across the country, long a goal for the Left.
The legislation, which in the GOP-controlled Congress has no chance of passing, is still notable in that it sets a baseline for liberal efforts to tax the right ahead of the midterm election and could become a test for Democratic hopefuls for the 2028 nomination. The bill would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on just under 1,000 of the wealthiest people in the country.
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The bill provides for wealth distribution and would provide $3,000 direct payments to every individual in a household making $150,000 or less per year and $12,000 to a family of four. The legislation would net $4.4 trillion over the next decade, according to economists at the University of California at Berkeley.
“We cannot continue a trend in which, over the past 50 years, $79 trillion in wealth in our country has been redistributed from the bottom 90% to the top 1%,” Sanders said. “Enough is enough. Billionaires cannot have it all. It is time to enact a wealth tax on billionaires — and use this revenue to address some of the major crises facing working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the most vulnerable.”
Sanders and Khanna noted in a Monday news release that no one with a net worth less than $1 billion would pay extra taxes if the law were enacted.
The legislation, dubbed the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, would also reverse changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act that were imposed as part of the GOP-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
It would also expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing for seniors, dedicate funding toward the goal of building and preserving over 7 million affordable homes, establish a $60,000 minimum annual salary for public school teachers, and make it so that families don’t pay more than 7% of their income on child care, according to the authors.
Because the bill would levy a 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires, if those billionaires didn’t have enough liquid assets to pay the Treasury, they would presumably have to sell off assets in order to foot the tax bill.
Sanders and Khanna noted that the world’s wealthiest person, Tesla founder Elon Musk, would owe $42 billion in taxes against his $833 billion net worth. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would face an $11 billion tax bill.
Taxes on wealth, as opposed to income, have historically proved difficult to implement. In the U.S., Democrats have offered proposals for taxing wealth, directly or indirectly, but have so far not been able to implement any.
For instance, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a proposal that would tax the unrealized capital gains of billionaires and very high earners.
The latest effort comes as some in California work to impose a similar 5% tax on billionaires in the Golden State. That would target some 200 billionaires in the state.
Notably, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is seen as a front-runner for president in 2028, has come out against the California billionaire tax. He argues that such a law would simply cause billionaires to move to other states, which would hurt the economy and tax base.
“Over the years, you would see a significant reduction in taxes because taxpayers will move. And that is what I fear at a state level,” Newsom said.
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But Khanna said the newest legislation at the federal level is necessary, given the big income gaps between billionaires and working-class taxpayers.
“We have a deep economic divide in this country,” Khanna said. “On one side, places like Silicon Valley are generating extreme wealth. On the other side, families are struggling to cover the cost of health care, housing, and basic needs.”
