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Tax the Rich Across the Land!
And there's not just one way to make sure the wealthy are paying their fair share. Two bold proposals have been introduced in the last few weeks that should be celebrated and supported.
Apr 05, 2026
How can the U.S. reverse democracy-distorting concentrations of wealth and power? A federal annual wealth tax must be part of the equation.
The richest 0.1 percent — the top one-thousandth of households, who are all worth over $50 million — have seen their wealth surge since the beginning of the 2020 Covid Pandemic. U.S. billionaires have seen their wealth double since 2019, with the top 19 U.S. billionaires adding $1 trillion to their wealth in 2024 alone.
Politicians and the public are waking up to the disruptive impact of billionaires, as chronicled in my recent book, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet. But most policy prescriptions fall short of truly addressing the accumulated wealth and power of the richest 0.1 percent.
While Congress was busy passing an enormous tax cut for the ultra-wealthy, campaigners from Massachusetts to Washington State have put forward several state-level “millionaire taxes” that are essential ways for states to build fairer tax systems with or without federal participation.
Hiking top income tax rates collects more revenue from the “working rich” — those with high incomes like doctors, lawyers, and CEOs. Those with substantial asset wealth have found countless ways to play shell games and reduce their income taxes, including their capital gains tax burden. (Ray Madoff’s new book, The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made An American Aristocracy, covers their crafty avoidance mechanisms).
California’s proposed emergency one-time 5 percent wealth tax on billionaires is the boldest of the state initiatives. It has the vulnerability of any progressive state level policy: The global billionaire class moves their money around the planet into tax havens that compete for business. Even mere threats billionaires make that they’ll move have rattled state voters. (It’s important to note that post-millionaire’s-tax Massachusetts has seen notably low attrition — there was some bluffing going on.)
There is no taxation silver bullet because America’s wealthy hire phalanxes of “wealth defense industry” attorneys and money managers with ample tax avoidance tools at their disposal. (See my book The Wealth Hoarders for more.)
The U.S. needs an “ecosystem” of tax reforms including patches to the income tax, a robust inheritance tax (to replace the porous estate tax), and meaningful oversight enforcement — so billionaires can’t wriggle their way past borders to avoid paying their fair share.
An essential cornerstone of reducing extreme wealth inequality is a federal annual wealth tax with severe penalties for billionaires that renounce their citizenship to avoid taxation. Two bold proposals have been introduced in the last few weeks that should be celebrated and supported.
Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) have introduced the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act” that would levy a 5 percent wealth tax on households with over $1 billion, mirroring the California billionaire tax initiative at the federal level. The tax would raise an estimated $4.4 trillion over ten years, though the conservative Tax Foundation estimates avoidance will reduce the revenue to closer to $3.3 trillion. The tax proposal invests 1 percent of revenue in strengthening enforcement and levies a 60 percent “exit tax” on billionaires renouncing their U.S. citizenship.
The bill includes a number of popular provisions including a $3,000 direct payment to every person earning less than $150,000 a year, in the first year (or $12,000 for a family of four). Other provisions include a reversal of Trump budget cuts to Medicaid, expanded health coverage, investments in affordable housing, and a minimum salary of $60,000 for all public school teachers.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has reintroduced an updated version of her 2021 “Ultra-Millionaire Tax”, with lead House sponsors Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA). This proposal would levy a 2 percent annual wealth tax on households and trusts valued at over $50 million. It would add an additional 1 percent annual surtax on wealth and trusts over $1 billion.
While Sanders-Khanna wealth tax would focus entirely on the estimated 950 U.S. billionaires, the Warren tax proposal would levy taxes on the wealthiest 260,000 households, excluding 99.85 percent of taxpayers. The Warren wealth tax would raise an estimated $6.2 trillion over ten years. As David Dayen writes in The American Prospect, “Inequality has boomed so much in the 2020s that a 2 percent wealth tax on multimillionaires initially introduced in 2021 would yield more than twice as much revenue today.”
The revamped Warren-Jayapal-Boyle proposal responds to the aggressive tax avoidance by the wealthy and their “wealth defense industry” enablers, which our disinvested oversight systems struggle to respond to. The legislators suggest levying taxes on wealth in trusts and assets held offshore, and modernizing the IRS to better catch evasion and track complex asset valuations of the ultra-rich. The proposal also includes a 40 percent “exit tax” on multi-millionaires and billionaires that renounce their U.S. citizenship.
While the revenue is not earmarked, the cosponsors of the legislation envision massive investments in affordable housing, universal childcare, expanded Medicare eligibility, and tuition-free community college.
| Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) | Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Tax | Ultra-Millionaire Tax |
| Who they tax | 5% annual wealth tax on assets over $1 billion | 2% tax on every dollar over $50m and additional 1% tax (total 3%) on every dollar over a net worth over $1 billion |
| What is being taxed | Entire stock of wealth over the $1 billion | “All household assets held anywhere in the world will be included in the net worth measurement, including residences, closely held business, assets held in trust, retirement assets, assets held by minor children, and personal property with a value of $50,000 or more.” |
| Number of Households Taxed | 938 billionaire households | 260,000 households |
| Revenue Estimate | $4.4 trillion over 10 years | $6.2 trillion over 10 years |
| Benefits & Investments | -$3,000 direct payment to every person making less than $150,000 annually ($12,000 family of 4) in the first year, in subsequent years allocation can be adjusted -Reverse “Big Beautiful Bill” cuts to Medicaid and ACC -Expand Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing for seniors -Build and rehab 7 million affordable homes -7% of income cap on childcare expenses for families -$60,000 minimum salary for all public school teachers -Increase accessibility for seniors and people with disabilities to home health under Medicaid | -Universal, affordable childcare -Build millions of new homes -Slash child poverty by expanding the Child Tax Credit -Lower the Medicare eligibility age to 55 -Universal paid family leave -Tuition-free community college |
| Guardrails & Exit Taxes | -1% of revenue to the IRS for enforcement -Adjusts rules for governing grantor trusts and fights -Imposes a 60% tax on taxable net wealth for taxpayers who expatriate | -“Valuing assets for the purposes of the Ultra-Millionaire Tax will provide an opportunity to tighten and expand upon existing valuation rules for the estate tax… close loopholes and develop new valuation rules as needed” -Increased IRS enforcement budget -Minimum audit rate for Ultra-Millionaire taxpayers -Set a 40% “exit tax” of net wealth over $50m to US citizens that renounce citizenship. Plus a third-party reporting system that adds to tax information exchange agreements already in existence |
Both these wealth tax proposals expand the national conversation and vision about what is possible if we tax oligarchic concentrations of wealth and power. They don’t seek to break up big fortunes as an end in and of itself — they directly outline the abundant opportunities and benefits Americans could reap from more revenue.
It’s almost certain that taxing wealth will be at the heart of 2028 presidential election discourse. The policy is incredibly popular across political parties and feels like common sense to hundreds of millions of people across the nation. Those who oppose new taxes should consider why they’re so out of step — and get on board fast.
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Saying No to Kings and Yes to the Future
In the fight against Trump, against fascism, against the MAGA right, we need to show vision: Can we create a system that does not destroy the Earth and takes into account the needs of humans and animals on the planet?
Mar 27, 2026
Millions of Americans are currently hard at work doing whatever we can to resist the fascism that has quickly taken hold in the United States. For as long as I can remember, many Americans were discontented with many aspects of the government—both people like me, who have always worked for environmental, social, and economic justice, and the people who would devolve into Donald Trump’s supporters—the same racist, nativist misogynists who have always populated this settler colonial state.
For those of us who value kindness, learning, fairness, diversity, working for a future for the environment, and all the other values hated by the MAGA cult, this is a time that feels like a daily nightmare. Every value we hold is being smashed into the ground by this cult that often feels almost supernatural in its pure evil.
Many of the federal agencies that have been sledgehammered into pieces were funding important programs feeding, educating, vaccinating, researching, and regulating, although often imperfectly. The percentage of our taxes that went to pay for imperialist military interventions was always massive and immoral. Trump’s minions even list some “cuts to woke programs.” These include Minority Business Development, the Environmental Justice program of the Environmental Protection Agency, preschool development grants, and so much more. But, we are now paying more for Trump’s personal Gestapo than all the federal law enforcement agencies together, as well as the massive military budget, including the Iran debacle, while we watch the government defund our states, cities, and towns.
Donald Trump’s regime has ramped up killing the Earth through global heating, discharges of all sorts of poisons into our environment, and mining anything with value to capitalism. We are witnessing the systems that Americans have relied on, maybe even thought would always be part of our lives, disappear overnight. If we had a problem with Social Security, there were offices everywhere, workers being paid to assist. Did we ever think we would need to worry about polio raging back? That a very unwell man with zero medical training would be making health policy, so we are unable to trust any health data and advice being promoted? That the executive branch of the United States would devolve from bowing to large corporations, but largely following the law, to possibly the most corrupt “leadership” in the world? That in 14 months, the corruption would be so pervasive that there is no part of the Trump regime operating without bribery and no-bid contracts?
We will need to be holding serious discussions about how to move ahead as a community, as a town or city, as a state—because we need to model what we want in order to bury Project 2025 in the ground forever.
What are we working for when we resist all of the above? And how much of the old system that has been decimated should return, and how can we work for a new beginning if we are able to eliminate Trump, Project 2025, and the rest of the ghouls who currently hold power? If we are able to overcome the very credible threats to elections by the Trump regime, and move past a likely coup attempt if a major election goes sideways for the fascists, what then? Is our only alternative the Democratic Party of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)? A Democratic Party that stood idly by when then-President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland let Trump skate on all his crimes, including the insurrection of January 6? A Democratic Party that did not prosecute Richard Nixon for Watergate, nor Ronald Reagan for the Iran-Contra scheme?A Democratic Party that was fine with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza?
This is a question we should all be asking, and when we work for change at this time, we need to be very clear about what changes we are looking to enact. Both parties presided over the immense and growing wealth gap, outsourcing of well-paying jobs for working people, a starved education system that put testing above critical thinking, an overwhelmed healthcare system, ever increasing housing costs, an ever growing war budget—these and more are what drove many poor and working class people to believe Trump’s lies that he and the far-right care about their needs. And now, the tech billionaires want to replace millions of jobs with AI—and leave those workers behind.
In the fight against Trump, against fascism, against the MAGA right, we need to show vision: Can we create a system that does not destroy the Earth and takes into account the needs of humans and animals on the planet? Our states are going to have to be a model for the future. Our communities are coming together because we understand how much we need each other at this time of the larger system appearing to disintegrate. We will need to be holding serious discussions about how to move ahead as a community, as a town or city, as a state—because we need to model what we want in order to bury Project 2025 in the ground forever. Going back to 2020 is not possible and not desirable. Creating a vision of a future that can support life on our planet in peace and justice is what we need to strive for.
No Kings!
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Yes, It's Time to Tax the Rich
A recent poll found that 80% of American respondents viewed wealth inequality as a problem, 80% said the rich had too much political power, and 78% said taxes on billionaires were too low.Social Scheduling
Mar 26, 2026
With the deadline for paying federal income taxes fast approaching, the thoughts of American taxpayers turn naturally toward the age-old question: Why isn’t there a fairer tax system?
Currently, in fact, campaigns for state tax-the-rich legislation are flourishing in California, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia, and have already succeeded in getting such legislation adopted in Massachusetts and Washington. Similarly, in Congress, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) have introduced the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Wash.) are sponsoring the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act. The tax-the-rich proposals range from increasing the tax rate for the very highest annual income earners, to instituting an annual wealth tax on the very richest Americans, to a combination of both.
Although the most affluent Americans, like other Americans, have always paid taxes to fund public services, the dispute has been over how much they should pay. Sales taxes and property taxes place a heavy burden on people of modest means, but a much lighter burden on the wealthy. Therefore, the wealthy have tended to favor these generators of public revenue and to oppose a progressive income tax, under which the rich would pay at a higher rate than the poor. A lengthy political battle for a tax system based upon ability to pay led to passage of the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, which empowered Congress to levy an income tax.
Initially, the new income tax, though progressive, was rather small-scale. But as the federal government took on new and costly tasks―particularly funding US participation in two world wars and the Cold War―the federal income tax grew accordingly. By 1944, the official tax rate for the highest income earners stood at 94%―although, thanks to deductions, loopholes, and the rate’s confinement to the top increment of their income, the richest Americans actually paid at a much lower rate.
Increasingly, in politics, big money talks―and on behalf of Republicans.
Like their well-heeled predecessors, many wealthy Americans were outraged at funding public services that benefited people whom they often regarded as their inferiors. Why, they wondered, was their money being “wasted” on things like public schools, public housing, and public healthcare, when “the best people” went to private schools, lived in private mansions or gated communities, and employed private “concierge doctors”? While chatting with their friends over lunch on their yachts or at their tennis clubs, they complained of “welfare queens” and the “ungrateful poor.”
Consequently, Congress―badgered by the wealthy, their corporations, and conservative ideologues―cut the progressivity of the federal income tax. In 1964, the top marginal tax rate was reduced from 91% to 70%, in 1981 to 50%, and in 2018 to 37%.
Given these dramatic cuts in the federal income tax rate, plus preferential tax treatment for dividends and appreciation in the value of stock, bonds, and other investments―the wealthiest Americans managed to secure a much lower tax rate than most Americans. According to a ProPublica investigation, the 25 richest Americans, who had $401 billion in income from 2014 to 2018, paid taxes on it at a rate of just 3.4%. Indeed, during some years, the world’s top billionaires―including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, and Carl Icahn―paid no federal income taxes at all.
When it came to corporate income, the federal government slashed the corporate tax rate from 53% to 21% between 1969 and 2025. And this, too, produced enormous benefits for very affluent Americans, who own most stock market wealth. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 23 of the largest and most profitable US companies paid no federal corporate income taxes at all from 2018 to 2022. And 109 corporations paid no federal tax in at least one of those years.
The Trump administration’s tax policies lifted the fortunes of the wealthy to unprecedented heights. According to a September 2025 report by Americans for Tax Fairness, the wealth of the 15 richest US billionaires increased by over 300% after the passage of the first Trump-GOP tax cut in December 2017. The wealth of the very richest of them, Elon Musk, grew 20-fold. In the first year of Trump’s second term, marked by another huge tax cut for the rich, US billionaire wealth jumped from $6.7 trillion to $8.2 trillion.
Not surprisingly, government taxation policy―coming on top of low-wage rates, corporate outsourcing, assaults on unions, and government subsidies for big business―has resulted in rising economic inequality in the United States. By late 2025, the richest 1% of Americans possessed some $55 trillion in assets―roughly equal to the wealth held by the bottom 90%. “Household wealth is highly concentrated and becoming steadily more concentrated,” reported the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, a major financial research firm.
This rising economic inequality enhances the growing power of the wealthy in public affairs. Increasingly, in politics, big money talks―and on behalf of Republicans. Federal election contributions from the nation’s 100 richest Americans averaged $21 million between 2000 and 2010, but rose beyond $1 billion in 2024. In that year, contributions to Republicans surged from roughly $300 million to just under $1 billion, while donations to Democrats dropped from roughly $300 million to less than $200 million. A right-wing political party, led by a demagogic billionaire promising more tax cuts, proved irresistible.
By contrast, most Americans support proposals to raise taxes on the rich. According to a March 2025 Pew Research Center poll, large majorities of Americans surveyed favored increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations. In January 2026, an Economist/YouGov poll reported that 80% of American respondents viewed wealth inequality as a problem, 80% said the rich had too much political power, and 78% said taxes on billionaires were too low.
It’s time to tax the rich. Or, as Pete Seeger used to sing, “Take it easy, but take it.”
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