Sanders wants to tax Top Gaining Billionaires’ ‘Obscene’ Wealth Gain

US WEALTHIEST BILLIONAIRES DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

While tens of millions of Americans have been rendered jobless, homeless, and broke due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, billionaires such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg have seen wealth increase in billions of dollars.

Senator Bernie Sanders recently expressed his concern over the matter saying the U.S. will tax the billionaires’ “outrageous pandemic wealth” which were incurred only between a space of 5 months, the same period 50 million Americans applied for unemployment aid.

“We are going to tax Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and the other billionaires’ outrageous pandemic wealth accumulation so we can provide health care to all our people,” Sanders tweeted on Sunday.

Sanders was part of the sponsors of the Make Billionaires Pay Act which impose a one-time 60% “windfall” tax on the $731 billion jointly accumulated by 467 billionaires from the March to August period.

Together with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the legislation will be coordinated. A sum of $427.1 billion is expected to be raised, which the senators say is enough to cover all medical and healthcare expenses for all Americans over the next 12 months.

“At a time of enormous economic pain and suffering, we have a fundamental choice to make,” said Sanders in a statement on Thursday. “We can continue to allow the very rich to get much richer while everyone else gets poorer and poorer. Or we can tax the winnings a handful of billionaires made during the pandemic to improve the health and well-being of tens of millions of Americans.”

The Medicare for All policy is one that is driven by the Democrats who believe that the need for medicare assistance has become urgent. About 5 million Americans have lost their health insurance coverage due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“As more than 160,000 Americans have lost their lives and millions more have lost their jobs, it is unconscionable that the super-wealthy are getting even richer in the midst of this crisis,” said Sen. Markey in a statement on Thursday. “Despite overwhelming need, Republicans continue to look for any excuse under the guise of deficit reduction to cut vital support programs like jobless aid and health insurance for the most vulnerable.”

According to the bill, the wealthiest man in the world, Jeff Bezos would pay a one-time task of $42.8 billion. Elon Musk whose wealth reportedly tripled during the pandemic would pay $27.5 billion. While Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg would pay $22.8 billion.

Elon Musk reacted to Sander’s tweet by posting a meme on Friday

Sanders also tweeted in response to Elon:

“Requiring billionaires to pay their fair share will help support workers and families dealing with job losses, food insecurity, housing instability and health care,” Gillibrand said. “Not only is this a common-sense proposal, but it’s a moral one and Congress would be doing all we can to assist Americans struggling right now.”