Dems Have Crazy New Plan to Fund Biden’s Infrastructure Bill: Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share

Senior Democrats are preparing a sweeping new tax plan that would aim to raise hundreds of billions of dollars from the fortunes of America’s roughly 700 billionaires, an abrupt shift in the party’s approach to funding a large expansion of the safety net…. Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is drafting the plan, but both senior Biden officials and other senior Democrats are cautiously optimistic Sinema and other centrist lawmakers support the effort, according to interviews with three congressional aides and two administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect sensitive negotiations. “The Billionaires Income Tax is about fairness and showing the American people taxes aren’t mandatory for them and optional for the wealthiest people in the country,” Wyden said in a statement. “No working person in this country thinks it’s right that billionaires can pay no taxes for years on end, and sometimes never at all.”

Currently, wealthy Americans do not have to pay taxes on vast accumulations of wealth because they are only taxed once the asset is sold. Billionaires often borrow against their non-taxed assets, which allows them to spend enormous sums of money while effectively paying very low taxes relative to their income and worth. Under the “Billionaire Income Tax” proposal, a summary of which was obtained by The Washington Post, the federal government would require billionaires to pay taxes on the increased value of their assets such as stocks on an annual basis, regardless of whether they sell those assets. Billionaires would also be able to take deductions for the annual loss in value of those assets. It would also set up a system for taxing assets that are not easily tradable, like real estate. The tax would apply to billionaires and people earning over $100 million in income three years in a row.