I will be introducing legislation tomorrow to tax the obscene wealth gains billionaires have made during the public health crisis.
What I think many people do not fully understand is that not everyone is hurting in America. Not everyone needs the Senate to act.
While over 30 million Americans have seen their $600 a week in unemployment benefits expire, emergency actions taken by the Federal Reserve to prop up the stock market have meant that 467 billionaires saw their wealth go up by over $730 billion since the pandemic began.
Let me repeat that. 467 billionaires have seen their wealth go up by over $730 billion during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, during the last four months, while the very, very rich have become much richer, American households have seen their wealth go down by $6.5 trillion.
In all likelihood, in the midst of everything else, we are currently witnessing what is likely the greatest transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the very rich in the modern history of this country.
In other words, in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of an economic meltdown for working families, in the midst of a great struggle regarding systemic racism and police brutality, in the midst of the existential threat of climate change...
In the midst of a president undermining democracy and moving us toward an authoritarian government, in the midst of all of that, we are seeing a massive increase in income and wealth inequality and the movement in this country toward oligarchy.
Let me give you a few examples of the incredible growth in inequality that is taking place during this horrific pandemic.
While Amazon is denying paid sick leave, hazard pay and personal protective equipment to 450,000 of its workers, Jeff Bezos has increased his wealth by over $70 billion.
While U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing the starvation wages at Walmart, our nation’s largest private employer, the Walton family has made over $20 billion during the pandemic and now has a net worth of over $200 billion.
While 40 million Americans face eviction, Elon Musk has nearly tripled his wealth over the past four months and now has a net worth of more than $70 billion.
While millions of Americans are lining up at emergency food banks because they don’t have enough money to put food on the table, Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook has increased his wealth by more than $37 billion during the pandemic and is now worth over $90 billion.
At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when so many our people are hurting, it is morally obscene for billionaires to use a global pandemic as an opportunity to make outrageous profits.
If we taxed 60% of the windfall gains 467 billionaires made from March 18th until August 3rd we could raise over $420 billion. That’s enough revenue to allow Medicare to pay all of the out-of-pocket health care expenses for everyone in America over the next 12 months.
Yes, by taxing 60% of the wealth gains made by just 467 billionaires during this pandemic, we could guarantee health care as a right for an entire year. And billionaires would still be able to pocket over $310 billion in gains during the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
In my view, we can no longer tolerate the three wealthiest people in America owning more wealth than the bottom 50 percent, while over 30 million Americans have lost their jobs and 92 million people are either uninsured or under-insured.
We have a choice to make. 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.
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 and have never had it so good.
