Sanders to Oligarchs Opposing California Billionaire Tax: ‘You’re Treading on Very, Very Thin Ice’
“Starting right here in California, these billionaires are going to learn that we are still living in a democratic society where the people have some power,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at the Billionaire Tax Now rally on February 18, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo by Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Feb 19, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
US Sen. Bernie Sanders used his appearance at a rally in Los Angeles on Wednesday to call out—in some cases by name—the billionaires using tiny slices of their fortunes to fight a proposed wealth tax in California.
“What I can tell the oligarchs is that the American people are sick and tired of their greed,” Sanders (I-Vt.) told an enthusiastic audience gathered at The Wiltern theater, with members of the crowd donning “Tax the Billionaires” T-shirts. “They are sick and tired of people like Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, who is spending $20 million to defeat this tax on billionaires.”
“It’s not just Mr. Brin,” the senator continued. “Mark Zuckerberg is the wealthiest man in California and the fourth-wealthiest person in the world, worth $226 billion. And for Mr. Zuckerberg, it is apparently not good enough to own one yacht. He had to buy three yachts worth $530 million. He had to buy 11 homes in Palo Alto to make a family compound. Mr. Zuckerberg, you can afford to pay your fair share of taxes so that people have healthcare.”
The senator also condemned billionaires’ fearmongering about the supposed negative impacts of wealth taxes and threats to flee the state if the levy proposed in California is enacted.
“I would say to these oligarchs: Be careful, because you are treading on very, very thin ice,” said Sanders. “At a time when the very rich are becoming phenomenally richer, when the very rich have been given a massive tax break by Donald Trump, when millions of people in this state are struggling to be able to afford healthcare, maybe billionaires should start paying their fair share of taxes.”
Sanders’s remarks came as California organizers, led by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), continued their efforts to collect the roughly 875,000 signatures necessary to get the billionaire wealth tax proposal on the November ballot. Supporters of the proposal are facing opposition from some of the most powerful forces in California, including Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
If approved, the measure would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires living in California as of the start of 2026, with the revenue aimed at offsetting the impacts of federal Medicaid cuts on the state’s healthcare system.
“Massive federal healthcare cuts could force many of our local hospitals and emergency rooms to close their doors forever—all because billionaires insist on paying lower tax rates than the rest of us,” Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff for SEIU-UHW, said at Wednesday’s rally. “If we don’t act, hospitals and ERs across California will close, and patients will suffer.”
“If we don’t act, millions of people will lose access to the healthcare services they rely on,” Jimenez continued. “If we don’t act, our neighbors, our patients, and our loved ones will have to drive twice as far, and wait twice as long, to receive emergency care. And for what? So billionaires can have another yacht? I don’t think so!”
“While US billionaires became $1.5 trillion richer last year, the average worker in America has just $955 in retirement savings,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. “That’s why I’ll be in LA this week fighting for a wealth tax on billionaires.”
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) speaks at a rally in Folsom, California on April 15, 2025.
(Photo by Paul Kuroda for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Feb 18, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
US Sen. Bernie Sanders is set to rally in California on Wednesday with frontline healthcare workers and other supporters of a proposed ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of the roughly 200 billionaires who reside in the Golden State.
Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime champion of efforts to redress massive income and wealth inequality nationwide, said in a statement ahead of Wednesday’s rally that he “strongly” supports the proposed wealth tax in California, which is home to more billionaires than any other state in the US.
“While US billionaires became $1.5 trillion richer last year, the average worker in America has just $955 in retirement savings and 21% of seniors are trying to survive on less than $15,000 a year,” Sanders wrote in a social media post earlier this week. “That’s why I’ll be in LA this week fighting for a wealth tax on billionaires.”
Sanders’ appearance at Wednesday’s rally in Los Angeles, which is set to begin at 5 pm local time, comes as organizers behind the California wealth tax push are working to collect the roughly 875,000 signatures required to get the proposal on the November ballot.
“Union leaders believe the visit by Mr. Sanders will energize their campaign, which has already trained more than 1,000 volunteers and doubled the amount per signature that it is paying petition circulators,” the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
“We are very grateful for the support of US Sen. Sanders, who for years has been telling the truth about the threat that income inequality poses to our nation—and to working people.”
The Times also reported that “an opposition campaign committee with ties to the crypto industry, called Golden State Promise, officially formed on Friday” and “was expected to report this week $10 million in donations, including $5 million from Chris Larsen, a founder of the cryptocurrency company Ripple.”
The proposal has also drawn opposition from Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has close ties to Silicon Valley elites—some of the most vocal opponents of the state wealth tax plan. (Notably, the billionaire CEO of the most valuable company in the world, Nvidia, said earlier this year that he is “perfectly fine” with the proposal as others in his class pumped millions into the effort to defeat it.)
Newsom, widely seen as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, has publicly vowed to defeat the proposed wealth tax, which is aimed at raising funds to prevent a looming healthcare crisis spurred by federal Medicaid cuts that US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans approved last summer.
“This will be defeated—there’s no question in my mind,” Newsom said in January. “I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state.”
Proponents of the tax estimate that it would raise around $100 billion in revenue—much of which would be placed in a “Billionaire Tax Health Account” designed to help shore up the state’s healthcare system.
Mayra Castaneda, an Ultrasound Technologist at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, said that “we are very grateful for the support of US Sen. Sanders, who for years has been telling the truth about the threat that income inequality poses to our nation—and to working people.”
“If we let these healthcare cuts stand, my patients will suffer. Hospitals and ERs will close, others will be strained by taking on more patients, and people will lose access to life-saving care,” said Castaneda. “This is all avoidable if billionaires just pay their fair share in California, so I’m going to do whatever is in my power to see this proposal pass in November. I’ll be telling my story alongside Sen. Sanders and urging my fellow Californians to take action to save lives.”
No comments:
Post a Comment