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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla boss Elon Musk and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg would have to shell out tens of billions of dollars in taxes under a bill introduced by Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey and Kirsten Gillibrand on Thursday. The Make Billionaires Pay Act would impose a one-time 60% tax on wealth gains made by billionaires during the coronavirus pandemic.
The emergency tax would apply to the period between March 18 and the beginning of 2021, and would be used to cover necessary healthcare expenses of the uninsured and underinsured (including prescription drugs) for a year.
“At a time of enormous economic pain and suffering, we have a fundamental choice to make,” Sanders said a statement. “We can continue to allow the very rich to get much richer while everyone else gets poorer and poorer. Or we can tax the winnings a handful of billionaires made during the pandemic to improve the health and well-being of tens of millions of Americans.”
Neither Amazon, Tesla nor Facebook immediately responded to requests for comment.
