Senator Bernie Sanders says that income over $1 Billion should be taxed at a 100% rate. Sanders expressed that belief in an exchange on Friday evening with the host of HBO Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace.
Are you basically saying that once you get to $999m that the government should confiscate all the rest?” Wallace asked the US senator. Senator Sanders is an independent, but works with Democrats and has helped them attain their current slim majority in the upper congressional chamber.
“Yeah,” Sanders replies in the interview. “You may disagree with me but, fine, I think people can make it on $999m. I think that they can survive just fine.”
Earlier in the interview, Wallace brings up how the late Sam Walton could make the giant retail chain Walmart the largest single private employer in the US. Walton’s family’s net worth sits at about $225bn. Sanders countered that Walmart in many cases pays starvation wages to its 1.2 million employees despite the Waltons’ riches.
“Many of their workers are on Medicaid or food stamps,” Sanders said. This was in reference to forms of government assistance for which low-income Americans can qualify. “In other words, taxpayers are subsidizing the wealthiest family in the country. Do I think that’s right? No, I don’t.”
He added that if he were in charge: “If you make a whole lot of money, you’re going to pay a whole lot of money in taxes.”