Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, after publicly accusing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos of not paying a fair share of the tax, called for a wealth tax on the wealthiest Americans.
“I want to see that we tax wealth, no matter how much your wealth is. Whether you have real estate or cash, or whether you own countless Amazon stocks, it shouldn’t be any different. Yes, Jeff. Bezos, I’m looking at you,” Warren says.
Senator Elizabeth Warren defended the US wealth tax: “Yes, Jeff Bezos, I’m looking at you.” pic.twitter.com/iUfTNuAGaN
— CNBC (@CNBC) July 28, 2021
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Bezos’ net worth is US$208 billion, making him the richest man in the world.
Both Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ran for the Democratic nomination with very similar wealth tax proposals. The income collected from the wealth tax will be used for healthcare, childcare, housing, education, infrastructure, and climate change.
According to ForbesDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s billionaire wealth increased by US$1.2 trillion.
A billionaire went to space, and his federal income tax has been zero for several years, but his company’s workers can hardly afford the children’s medical expenses, rent and food. Does this impress me? Do not. It’s time to invest in working people on earth. pic.twitter.com/F1NVBPu6TJ
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 21, 2021
In Warren’s 2020 campaign, she proposed a 2% “super millionaire tax” on wealth over $50 million and a 6% “super millionaire tax” on wealth over $1 billion. According to data from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, income It will add 2.3 trillion to 2.7 trillion US dollars of additional revenue in the 10-year window from 2021 to 2030, while reducing GDP in 2050 by about 1% to 2%, depending on how the funds are spent.
Sanders campaign Similar tax A survey of the richest 180,000 American households with net worth of at least 32 million US dollars. University of California, Berkeley economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez said that the proposal would halve the wealth of billionaires within 15 years and completely narrow the wealth gap between billionaires and ordinary American households. Sanders’ plan will raise $1.6 trillion more in revenue than Warren’s plan in ten years.
Both Warren and Sanders criticized Bezos for not paying his due taxes.
“He is worth millions of dollars, and he has not paid taxes on all this wealth. In fact, Jeff Bezos has either paid no taxes or paid 1% tax for many years,” Warren said.
