Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna propose $4.4 trillion tax on billionaires

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont unveiled proposed legislation that would introduce a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires that he and his co-sponsor, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California, say would generate $4.4 trillion in revenue over the next 10 years that would then be redistributed to lower-earning Americans. 

According to the "Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share" plan put forth by Sanders and Khanna, the wealth tax would be applied to any American with a net worth of $1 billion or more. The funds collected would then be used to send a "$3,000 direct payment to every man, woman and child living in a household making $150,000 or less," though the proposal provides no timeline for when American families might start receiving payments. The proposed legislation also calls for setting a $60,000 minimum annual salary for teachers as well as subsidizing health care and childcare costs. 

Sanders, a Democratic socialist, has long called for similar measures of wealth redistribution to fuel his populist presidential runs in 2016 and 2020. Khanna, a Democrat who represents a wealthy district in Silicon Valley, has recently supported California's proposed billionaire's tax, which has triggered an exodus of billionaire tech moguls and others from the Golden State over the last few months. 

With a Republican-controlled Congress, the proposed legislation most likely will never be brought to a vote in the Senate or House, meaning the measure is more of a stunt aimed at staking out the leftist flank for the 2028 Democratic primary. Neither Sanders, who is 84, nor Khanna have announced plans to run for the party's nomination in 2028. But Khanna has been testing the waters.

Sanders in recent weeks has teased that he would introduce a "national wealth tax," an idea Dave Rubin has been critical of over and over again because of a chilling effect it would likely have on American capitalism. 

"We've incentivized people to be successful [in the U.S.]," Dave said on the show last week. "How did we do that? Because we have lower taxes than they have in most of Europe. We've generally had less regulation."