A group of progressive lawmakers is renewing its push to increase taxes on the country’s wealthiest people.
The suggestion, reintroduced on Tuesday, would establish a 2 percent tax on households worth more than $50 million and a 3 percent tax on households valued over $1 billion. It would impact the richest 100,000 households in the country, according to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), USA Today first reported.
“Today I’m re-introducing my Ultra-Millionaires Tax so that when someone makes it really big—earning over $50 million—they have to chip in 2 cents on the next dollar,” Warren said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“That means Jeff Bezos can’t keep paying lower tax rates than public school teachers,” Warren added.
In an effort to prevent the wealthy from avoiding paying the tax, the bill includes provisions to provide the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with an additional $100 billion. It also creates a 40 percent tax on net worth about $50 million for people who want to ditch their U.S. citizenship to evade the wealth tax.
Warren has support from a handful of Democratic senators and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as well as more than 20 House Democrats. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced the bill alongside Warren.
Warren’s bill is not expected to get very far in the Republican-controlled House but continues the left’s years-long effort to tax the rich.
Last week, President Biden released his ambitious budget proposal, in which he called for a wealth tax on individuals worth more than $100 million. He called for a 25 percent minimum tax rate on “the wealthiest 0.01 percent” of Americans and the restoration of the top income tax rate for people making more than $400,000 a year to 39.6 percent.
As Biden and Congress gear up for an election year, the proposals aim to restore tax rates closer to what they were before former President Trump took office.
In an emailed statement, Warren reiterated her message that it’s not fair that Amazon CEO’s Bezos has “tax loopholes” where he pays less than a teacher. She said that “all my bill is asking” is that those who are doing well financially pay more taxes “so everyone else can have a chance” to do well, too.
