Sanders proposes $4.4 trillion tax on billionaires

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has teamed up with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to propose a 5 percent annual wealth tax on the nation’s billionaires that would raise an estimated $4.4 trillion over the next decade to help “working families” cope with higher living costs.

The tax hike would apply to 938 billionaires in the U.S., who collectively own $8.2 trillion in wealth.

The legislation would redistribute that wealth by providing $3,000 direct payments in its first year of enactment to every person in a household earning less than $150,000 in annual income.

“We can no longer tolerate a corrupt tax code that enables billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than the average worker,” Sanders said in a statement.

“In a democratic society, we cannot tolerate 60 percent of our people living paycheck to paycheck — struggling to pay for housing, food and health care — while 938 billionaires have become $1.5 trillion richer,” he added.

The Sanders-Khanna proposal would reverse the $1.1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act made by President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing care for millions of senior citizens.

It would also “ensure” that no family pays more than 7 percent of their income on childcare and establish a minimum $60,000 annual salary for every public-school teacher in the country.

Khanna, a progressive Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, said the nation faces a “deep economic divide.”

“We can tax billionaires a modest amount to make sure everyone has a fair chance while keeping our innovative engine,” Khanna said in a statement.

” That is why I am proud to join Senator Bernie Sanders to lead the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act,” he added.