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patriotic millionaires
On Tax Day, Socially Conscious Millionaires Say Make Us Pay More!
"We cannot hand over the keys to our democracy to people who are unwilling to address the economic injustices that exist today," said Scott Ellis of the Patriotic Millionaires.
Apr 15, 2026
"Millionaires like me who want a rich, stable, free country demand an economy that ensures it. That begins with commonsense revenue raisers and tax reforms that stop the accumulation of oligarchic concentrations of wealth."
That's what Scott Ellis of the Patriotic Millionaire said Wednesday—Tax Day in the United States—as he gathered with members of various organizations, plus Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), as well as Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va,), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), for a "tax the rich" rally on Capitol Hill.
"While I've seen examples of the good that wealth can do, I have also seen all the ways it can lead to irreparable harm to our personal, political, moral, and societal well-being," said Ellis. "There is a level of wealth beyond which it threatens the health and even the existence of our democracy and our economy. We cannot hand over the keys to our democracy to people who are unwilling to address the economic injustices that exist today."
We’re taking our message across Washington, DC.Our mobile billboard will be circling Capitol Hill, the National Mall, and beyond—calling out billionaire tax avoidance and demanding higher taxes on the richest Americans.Because working people pay what they owe. It’s time the ultra-rich do too.
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— Patriotic Millionaires (@patrioticmillionaires.org) April 15, 2026 at 11:49 AM
Ellis said that he joined the lawmakers and others gathered "to urge our government leaders to deal with the money problem in our country head-on with solutions like those found in the Patriotic Millionaires' MONEY Agenda platform. Every time inequality reaches extraordinary levels, we create a vulnerability to authoritarianism where money becomes power. If we want to unrig our economy, we need a bold, surprisingly simple economic vision."
So far, two bills tied to the MONEY Agenda have been introduced in Congress: the Equal Tax Act, sponsored by Markey and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), and the Working Americans' Tax Cut Act, spearheaded by Van Hollen and Beyer.
"Teachers, nurses, and millions [of] working people are paying more while getting less because our tax code is rigged to reward wealth over work," Markey said in a statement. "The Equal Tax Act brings fairness to our tax code by requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay taxes on investment income the same way working people pay taxes. On Tax Day, I'm proud to work with Congresswoman Ramirez to fight for legislation that has the wealthy pay their fair share, and rewards work every bit as much as wealth."
Van Hollen, meanwhile, said Wednesday that "my Working Americans' Tax Cut Act creates a fairer system that ensures those who are stretching to make ends meet can keep more of what they earn, while asking the well-off to pitch in more. It's long past time that we rebalanced our tax code to put working people first—and promote greater opportunity and shared prosperity for all."
This country’s tax system is built to favor those at the top and squeeze every last dime out of those at the bottom. It’s time for a change to this rigged system.
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— Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (@jayapal.house.gov) April 15, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Deluzio used the "Tax the Rich, Make Life Affordable" rally to call out the agenda of elected Republicans—who control the White House and both chambers of Congress—and promote another bill led by Jayapal, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
"Our government has a fiscal recklessness problem, and it looks like this: the richest people in the history of Earth facing lower tax rates than Americans who earn a paycheck," said Deluzio. "Yet that is the Republican plan—jack up the national debt and slash healthcare and more for the American people to pay for these huge tax giveaways to corporations and the ultrarich. We need a vastly different approach, like passing the Ultra-Millionaires Tax to get some sanity back into our tax system."
To illustrate just how broken the current system is, EJ Juárez, executive director of State Innovation Exchange, noted that "in 2025 alone, billionaire wealth grew 22%—from $6.7 trillion to $8.2 trillion—while working families see the cost of living go up, and wages too low. That is why SiX is working alongside state legislators across the country to lead the way."
"Across all 50 states, lawmakers are advancing bold solutions to make the ultrawealthy pay what they owe, close corporate loopholes, and build tax systems that actually lower costs and empower working families," Juárez said, nodding to initiatives in places such as California and Washington state. "Together, states are proving a better future is possible."
Beyond Washington, DC, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani partnered with Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz and Paris School of Economics professor Gabriel Zucman for a Tax Day op-ed calling out the "rigged" US tax code.
"The idea that billionaires should pay higher tax rates than working people is not radical," the trio wrote for The Guardian. "What is radical is allowing a system where extreme wealth exists alongside widespread hardship—and where those billionaires can in effect opt out of contributing to the society that made their success possible."
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Markey Applauded for Proposal to Make Wealthiest Americans Pay Investment Tax
One advocate called the bill an "important step forward in reducing historic, extreme, and democracy-destabilizing levels of economic inequality in America."
Mar 17, 2026
In a move cheered by economic justice advocates, US Sen. Ed Markey on Tuesday introduced the Senate version of the bicameral Equal Tax Act, a bill that would "create equal tax rates for all forms of income for individuals with incomes over $1 million."
"The wealthiest individuals in our society use loopholes and tax dodging schemes to avoid paying their fair share," Markey (D-Mass.) said in an introduction to the bill. "They get away with it because our tax code rewards wealth over work—giving breaks to those that trade stocks over those that punch clocks."
The legislation—which was first introduced in the House of Representatives last year by Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.)—seeks to make the tax code more fair by making billionaires and multimillionaires pay income tax on passive investments, as if they earned their money through labor, by raising the top marginal rate from the current 20% to 37%.
Right now, billionaires can pay less in taxes on their stock trades than teachers or nurses that educate our children and care for us in emergencies. My Equal Tax Act would stop rewarding wealth more than work by making the ultra-wealthy pay taxes like millions of working people.
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— Senator Ed Markey (@markey.senate.gov) March 17, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Specifically, the Equal Tax Act would:
- Limit the lower preferential tax rate for long-term capital gains and dividends to incomes under $1 million;
- End the stepped-up basis loophole and disrupt the “buy, borrow, die” strategy used by the wealthy to avoid taxation by treating capital gains as realized at the time of gift or death, with exclusion allowances of up to $1 million in gains;
- Enact a lifetime limit of $1 million on the use of like-kind exchanges on real estate gains; and
- Limit the pass-through deduction to incomes under $1 million.
Markey's office said Tuesday that, if passed, the Equal Tax Act would raise an estimated $300 billion in revenue over 10 years.
"Teachers, nurses, and millions of working people are the ones who keep our country running, but our tax code rewards wealth over work,” said Markey. “The Equal Tax Act brings fairness to our tax code by requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay taxes on investment income the same way working people pay taxes on income from their labor."
Ramirez noted how plutocrats like President Donald Trump and tech titans Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg "have extorted tax benefits from the American people."
"For far too long, they have exploited an unfair tax system that makes the rich richer at the expense of working families," the congresswoman added. "It is time we ensure that the ultrawealthy pay their fair share. I am excited to work with Sen. Markey in the bicameral introduction of the Equal Tax Act to build a fairer tax system that ensures working families have everything they need to thrive."
Morris Pearl, chair of the fair taxation advocacy group Patriotic Millionaires, said in a statement, “For decades, we have been playing a game of economic Jenga where we pull from the bottom and the middle, load it all on top, and then wonder why the whole thing is about to fall down."
"We end up with an unfair system that allows for oligarchic wealth to concentrate in the hands of a few individuals," Pearl continued. "That’s because right now in America, our tax code makes people who have jobs and work for a living pay far higher tax rates than people who make money from investments or inheritances."
"The money that investors like me make passively from our wealth should not be taxed any less than the money millions of Americans make through their sweat," he asserted. "By closing major loopholes, the Equal Tax Act would ensure that the ultrarich pay income taxes just like all Americans who work for a living and have taxes deducted from their paychecks every week."
"The Patriotic Millionaires are thrilled to see Sen. Markey take this important step forward in reducing historic, extreme, and democracy-destabilizing levels of economic inequality in America," Pearl added.
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77% of Global Millionaires Agree: Extreme Wealth Allows Uber-Rich to Buy Political Influence
Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo said that “extreme wealth inequality enabled” President Donald Trump, “and is the root cause of the trend towards authoritarianism we’re witnessing in the US and around the world.”
Jan 20, 2026
For years, progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have made the case that the world's richest people wield a dangerous level of influence over US politics—and it turns out that many millionaires agree.
New polling conducted on behalf of Patriotic Millionaires surveyed 3,900 millionaires across the world and found that 77% of them believe that extremely wealthy people are able to buy political influence, with 62% believing that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy itself.
Furthermore, 82% of millionaires surveyed endorsed limits from how much politicians and political parties can receive from individual contributors, while 65% supported higher taxes on the highest earners to invest in public services.
President Donald Trump's second term also received low marks from the millionaires surveyed, with 59% saying he has had a negative impact on global economic stability, and 58% saying that he's hurt US consumers' ability to afford basic necessities.
The poll's release coincided with the sending of an open letter signed by hundreds of millionaires across 24 countries asking world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum to increase taxes on the ultrawealthy in the name of rescuing global democracy. Trump is set to speak at the event on Wednesday.
"A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet," states the letter. "What we treasure, rich and poor alike, is being eaten away by those intent on growing the gulf between their vast power and everyone else."
Actor Mark Ruffalo, a signatory of the letter, argued that the extreme dangers posted by Trump and his political movement were the direct result of global wealth inequality that has gone unaddressed for decades.
"Donald Trump and the unique threat that he poses to American democracy did not come about overnight," Ruffalo explained. "Extreme wealth inequality enabled his every step, and is the root cause of the trend towards authoritarianism we’re witnessing in the US and around the world."
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