According to Senator Bernie Sanders, it’s wrong to be wildly successful in the land of the free.
Billionaires should not exist and, apparently, the best ways to rectify the issue is to impose a wealth tax on billionaires who dare to accumulate and invest their money as they see fit. The socialist presidential candidate also plans to create a new government office, called the National Wealth Registry, to make it difficult for millionaires and billionaires to take their money out of the United States.
In other words, if you don’t live by the socialist standards Bernie Sanders wants you to, you’ll be trapped here until you do.
The details Sanders’ tax plan make it very clear that the Senator is taking cues from his Soviet predecessors. Millionaires with a net worth of over $32 million would face a wealth tax of up to 1%. This tax rate moves upward from that point, hitting 8% for billionaires. Close to 200,000 households would be affected by this blatant money grab.
In addition to shelling out hard-earned cash to pay for government freebie programs like Medicare for All and Universal Childcare, millionaires and billionaires would also face Draconian tax scrutiny every single year. Sanders’ National Wealth Registry would ensure that 30% of millionaires, along with 100% of U.S. billionaires, would be audited every single year by the IRS. Furthermore, Sen. Sanders’ plan would raise the estate tax rate to 45% for those who own assets worth more than $3.5 million. Anyone “unlucky” enough to own assets worth over $1 billion would face a whopping 77% estate tax rate.
Senator Sanders and his team are estimating that the new plan would raise about $4.3 trillion over the next decade to cover socialist programs. However, there are a couple of outstanding problems with this blatant money grab.
First of all, millionaires and billionaires won’t just give up their wealth because a bunch of socialists want them do. Instead, they will move it offshore and invest outside the United States to avoid having their hard-earned cash stolen. Millionaires and billionaires also have access to the nation’s best accountants, tax preparers and lawyers. It won’t be hard for them to find ways around whatever new law is passed.
Counting on the very richest people in the nation to continually fund government programs on an ongoing basis just isn’t sustainable. Even Bernie Sanders and his team openly admit that their plan would slash billionaires’ wealth in half in 15 years. The less money one has, the lower his or her tax rate would be. To think that the plan could actually raise well over $4 trillion is ever implemented is clearly not realistic. Democrats would need to win not only the White House, but also the Senate in order to have any chance of turning this pipe dream into reality.
Senator Bernie Sanders, together with Senator Elizabeth Warren and other progressive candidates, are catering to those who want the best of everything right now. They do this by offering outrageous, unrealistic plans such as Medicare for All, Universal Child Care, a Federal Jobs Guarantee, and forgiveness of all student debts. Even if Sanders doesn’t secure the Democratic Party’s nomination, the damage is already done: his party is more radical than ever before, and it’s thanks in part to propositions like this.
