The fight between Vermont Senator and candidate for President Bernie Sanders proposed an act called ‘Make Billionaires Pay Act’ — this bill requires billionaire individuals and families of the United States to pay a one-time mega tax to support the country’s healthcare system.
According to Bernies’ press release on this act, the tax rate on billionaires would be 60% on the money they made from March 18th, 2020 o January 1st, 2021.
According to Americans for Tax Fairness and Institute for Policy, if we taxed 60 percent of the windfall gains these billionaires made from March 18th until August 5th we could raise $421.7 billion. That’s enough revenue to allow Medicare to pay all of the out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for everyone in America over the next 12 months.
Source: Bernie Sanders’ website
This press-release gives examples of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Walton Family who will pay $42.8B, $27.5B, $22.8B, and $21.5 billion respectively.
This quickly escalated to a Twitter war between Bernie and Tesla CEO Elon Musk attacking, name-calling each other directly in their tweets.
While Bernie Sanders is accusing Elon Musk of being an egocentric billionaire, Elon believes Bernie is paid by big oil to dent the mission for sustainable energy and transportation.
If ever this act turns into legislation and Bernie Sanders becomes President, Elon Musk will have to sell his stake in Tesla to pay for such a huge amount of money, this will reduce his share in the company and will negatively affect the company and its employees, investors, shareholders, and the stock market.
This will also cost Elon Musk his tranches of performance-based bonuses that he earned by making Tesla the world’s most valuable automotive company (current Market Cap = $270 billion).
Elon Musk does not accept a salary against his services, but he is required to get the minimum California pay which is piling up in a Tesla bank account somewhere and he never cashes it out, he says.
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Featured Photo: Bernie Sanders’ press / Joe Rogan via Instagram
