Sen. Bernie Sanders takes aim at billionaire wealth and political influence while backing California’s Proposition 40, calling it a major fight against the power and greed of the billionaire class. Sanders argues that billionaire money has too much influence over American politics and elections, while pushing for an economy that works for everyone. Watch the full report on Sanders’ latest remarks and the California billionaire tax debate.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We take on the greed and power of the billionaire class and create an economy and a government
00:09that works for all or are we destined to live in an oligarchic society begging for crumbs
00:20where our economic and political lives are controlled by a handful of the wealthiest
00:27people on earth.
00:31Ellie, thank you.
00:41Let me thank Congressman Ro Khanna for the introduction and for all of the great work he is doing in
00:48Congress.
00:49Ro, thanks very much.
00:53And let me express my appreciation to the California Federation of Labor, Dave Reagan, Lorena Gonzalez,
01:07and all of those who have done the enormously difficult work of getting Proposition 40 on
01:15the ballot and waging the kind of campaign that's going to win this victory.
01:27Brothers and sisters, it is not easy taking on some of the wealthiest people in the world.
01:36It is not easy taking on the Democratic and Republican establishment.
01:42It is not easy running a campaign when you're going to be heavily outspent.
01:51But that is what you are doing and working people all over this country are proud and appreciative
02:01of what you're doing.
02:09In my view, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, Proposition 40, the California Billionaire
02:18Tax Act is the most important ballot item in the country.
02:27Because it deals with the most important issue facing our country.
02:39And what is that issue, what is that issue that you are dealing with on this ballot item?
02:50The issue is, can the American people sustain democracy?
02:56Can we take on the greed and power of the billionaire class and create an economy and a government
03:07that works for all?
03:10Or are we destined to live in an oligarchic society begging for crumbs where our economic and political
03:20lives are controlled by a handful of the wealthiest people on earth?
03:30Brothers and sisters, that is the question on the ballot.
03:38And that is why the whole country is watching what you are doing here and why it is so imperative
03:48that we win this struggle.
03:56See, for the oligarchs, it's not just that they don't want to pay more in taxes, that's
04:03for sure.
04:04But it is the principle involved here.
04:07And you know what that principle is?
04:09Because they believe, like the monarchs of the 19th century, that they have a God-given right
04:18to rule.
04:22They have all the wealth, they got all of the power, and who the hell do you think you are
04:30challenging them?
04:35Well, I think on November 3rd, they're going to learn a very powerful lesson.
04:49And that lesson is that the oligarchs may have all the money and they got all the power, but
04:57when working people stand together, we can take them on and we can beat them.
05:09Now, why is this initiative so enormously important?
05:14And the answer is that never before in American history have so few people held so much wealth
05:23and so much power.
05:25Never before in American history have we had the kind of income and wealth inequality that
05:32we have today in which the top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 93%.
05:45Never before have we lived in a moment in which the very rich continue to get richer, while
05:5460% of our people, 60%, live paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay for the basic necessities of life.
06:06Brothers and sisters, we have never seen this level of inequality in American history, not in the
06:16gilded age of Rockefeller and Carnegie and J.P. Morgan.
06:21Never before have we seen what we are seeing today.
06:27But it's not just economic power and income and wealth inequality that we are contending with.
06:36Never before in American history have we seen a ruling class with so much political power.
06:46And never before, never before have we seen the unprecedented level of greed, arrogance and irresponsibility on the part of
07:00that ruling class.
07:04In America today, Elon Musk, the wealthiest man alive.
07:16Now owns, listen to this, now owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of American households.
07:31CEOs, CEOs, CEOs of large corporations are now making 350 times more than the average worker.
07:44And over the past year, after receiving the largest tax break in history, fewer than 1,000 billionaires
07:56in our country became over 2 trillion dollars richer.
08:05And you know, when people ask why Americans are angry, the answer is, it's not just what's going on right
08:13now.
08:14This has been going on for decades.
08:17This has been going on for decades.
08:17Over the last 50 years, nearly 80 trillion dollars in wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90% to
08:29the top 1%.
08:34So the rich get richer.
08:36What's happening over that period to working people?
08:38And the truth is that despite an explosion in worker productivity, the average American worker today is making 25 dollars
08:51a week less than he or she did 53 years ago after adjusting for inflation.
09:00So what we have seen over the last half a century, a massive redistribution of wealth, rich getting phenomenally richer
09:09while working people are going nowhere in a hurry.
09:14And worry that their kids may have an even lower standard of living than they do.
09:21That's where we are today.
09:23While the billionaire class of the 1% are doing better than at any time in American history, nearly 800
09:31,000 Americans are homeless.
09:34Tens of millions of people are struggling to put food on the table, pay for rent, pay for health care,
09:41prescription drugs, childcare, education, filling up their gas tanks and other basic necessities of life.
09:49But it's not just income and wealth inequality.
09:54We have more concentration of ownership in America today than ever before.
10:03While profits on Wall Street and corporate America saw a handful of giant corporations dominate sector after sector, agriculture, transportation,
10:16energy, financial services, you name it.
10:19And they charge us outrageously high prices because of their control over the economy.
10:29And by the way, by the way, when we talk about concentration of ownership, understand who owns the media.
10:40Today, our good friend Elon Musk owns Twitter.
10:47Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post and Twitch.
10:54Zuckerberg owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads.
11:01And our good friend Larry Ellison owns CBS, TikTok, Paramount, Skydance and MTV and is on its way to owning
11:13CNN and Warner Brothers.
11:20And ends with this growing concentration of ownership and more wealth and income income and wealth inequality.
11:27We are also seeing more political power in the hands of the 1%.
11:34In America today, billionaires are hell bent on owning not most, not only our economy, but our political system as
11:45well.
11:46As a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires are legally able to spend as much as
11:59they want on political campaigns through their so-called super PACs.
12:07As many of you know, Mr. Musk himself spent some two hundred and ninety million dollars to help elect Trump
12:16president.
12:19And he is now spending some two hundred million in this midterm election to try to see the Republicans retain
12:27control over the House and the Senate.
12:31All told, all told, billionaires are spending one and a half billion dollars on these midterm elections.
12:42You get one vote and they have the right to buy elections.
12:47And that is why we have got to get rid of the Citizens United, get rid of super PACs.
12:58And move to public funding of elections.
13:06All of which, all of which takes us back to Proposition 40 and what you are doing here in California.
13:15And what you are doing is that for the first time in our nation's history, you have put a proposition
13:23on the ballot which would establish a tax on billionaires.
13:34A one time, one time, five percent wealth tax on billionaires.
13:41This initiative would raise a hundred billion dollars, enough to prevent some three million working class Californians from losing the
13:53health care they currently have as a result of Trump's.
14:00And they're losing their health care because of Trump's disastrous so-called big, beautiful bill.
14:11Which threw 15 million Americans off the health care they have in order to give one trillion dollars in tax
14:22breaks to the top 1%.
14:28And let us be clear, so there's no misinformation, this proposal, this initiative would not raise taxes on anybody who
14:39makes less, who owns less than one billion dollars.
14:48No one with a net worth of less than a billion would pay a penny more in taxes under Proposition
14:5540.
14:56This tax would only apply to approximately 260 billionaires in California who are now collectively worth over 2.4 trillion
15:12dollars.
15:16Listen to this, listen to this.
15:19As a result of our rigged tax code, six Nobel Prize winning economists who support this ballot initiative recently pointed
15:31out that while these billionaires more than tripled their wealth over the past decade,
15:38they paid a lower effective tax rate than a plumber or a nurse.
15:55Incredibly, incredibly, these billionaires, hear this, became 500 billion dollars richer last year alone.
16:06That is five times as much as the California wealth tax would raise.
16:14In other words, you're not driving these guys into the poorhouse.
16:22If Proposition 40 passes, as I hope and expect it will,
16:35billionaires in California would still be 400 billion dollars richer than they were last year,
16:44and healthcare would be saved for millions of people in this state.
16:56The greed and arrogance of the billionaire class is really quite extraordinary and is now on display for the whole
17:08world to see.
17:09And essentially what they are saying is that at a time when they are richer and richer than they've ever
17:17been making tens of billions more every year,
17:20that they refuse to pay a few billion dollars more in taxes so that we can provide healthcare to children
17:28and working families.
17:38Instead of doing the right thing, the decent thing, the moral thing, and supporting this initiative so that children and
17:47working class people in California can get the healthcare they desperately need,
17:53billionaires are now spending hundreds of millions of dollars to oppose it.
18:02The effort against Proposition 40 is being led by a gentleman named Sergi Brin,
18:13the co-founder of Google who is spending over one hundred million dollars in opposing this proposition.
18:25Hundred million dollars.
18:29Who is Mr. Brin?
18:31Well, Mr. Brin is the fourth wealthiest man in the world worth some two hundred and seventy-four billion dollars.
18:44He has become one hundred and thirty billion dollars richer since Trump was elected.
18:55So you got that?
18:57The fourth richest guy in the world.
18:59He's become one hundred and thirty billion dollars richer in the last couple of years.
19:04If Proposition 40 is passed, Mr. Brin would owe thirteen point seven billion more in taxes.
19:19But don't feel too sorry for him.
19:21He would still have some two hundred and sixty billion left to feed his family.
19:30And Mr. Brin is not alone.
19:32Larry Page, Google's other co-founder, is the second wealthiest man alive worth two hundred and ninety-four billion.
19:39Yeah, he can afford to pay fourteen point seven billion more in taxes.
19:46And the same is true for Mr. Zuckerberg and all of the billionaires.
19:53What this really comes down to is a profound moral issue.
19:59What these guys are saying, we are worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
20:03But you want us to pay ten, fifteen billion dollars more so the children could get health care, so the
20:10kids could eat?
20:12We are not going to allow you to do that.
20:14We're going to put hundreds of millions of dollars to try to defeat you.
20:18Because we are the ruling class, we own the world, and we will not allow you to challenge us.
20:30And that is why your campaign is so important, and why the whole country is watching this.
20:38Because if you stand up to this wealth and power and arrogance, trust me, the rest of the country will
20:47not be far behind.
21:05And the other thing, the other thing, the other thing that really bothers me about this campaign,
21:14is the dishonesty and the extortionism on the part of the billionaires.
21:21If they want to have a debate on economics, if they want to tell the people of California and the
21:28country why it is more important
21:30that they keep their tens and hundreds of billions of dollars while children go without health care, make that debate.
21:37Tell us.
21:37They're not doing that.
21:39What they are saying is you, if you guys in California stand up to us, you're going to lose anyhow.
21:47We're going to punish you.
21:49We're going to leave the state.
21:54This is extortion.
21:59You understand what I mean by extortion?
22:02They're putting a gun to your head and saying, either your wallet or your life.
22:08Well, first of all, I don't believe they're going to leave the state.
22:14Because this state is a great state where they're making tons of money right now.
22:19And second of all, we cannot allow the extortion to govern what we do as a people.
22:36So tonight, I say to the billionaires, you have more money than you can spend in a thousand lifetimes.
22:47How many more mansions do you need?
22:52How many more yachts do you need?
22:56How many more jets do you need?
22:59How many more private islands do you need?
23:03How many trips to outer space do you need?
23:09So tonight, we say to the billionaire class, control your greed.
23:15Greed.
23:24Get out of your gated communities.
23:28Take a break from your cocktail parties.
23:31And take a hard look at the reality of what's going on in this country.
23:4015 million Americans are losing their health insurance, including over 3 million in California, to pay for Donald Trump's $1
23:50trillion tax breaks that benefited these guys here in California.
23:5820 million Americans have already seen their premiums double on average so that billionaires could receive the largest tax break
24:07in American history.
24:10Nursing homes, hospitals, and community health centers are being devastated because of Trump's $1 trillion cut to Medicaid and the
24:20Affordable Care Act.
24:22And let us be clear, and this is not me talking, this is based on studies done by economists.
24:29In California, in Vermont, and all across this country, thousands of people are going to die unnecessarily because they no
24:39longer have access to health care.
24:44So I say to the billionaire class, show some concern for your fellow Americans.
24:53Do not let children die because they can't get the health care they need so that you can get a
24:59few billion dollars more.
25:03Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on TV ads against this proposition, we have a better idea.
25:14Start paying your fair share of taxes.
25:28And let me tell the billionaires that what you guys are doing in California is not the end.
25:35It is the beginning.
25:38And that is why Congressman Roe-Connor and I have introduced a piece of legislation that would establish an annual,
25:49not one time, 5% wealth tax on billionaires.
26:01And I want you to hear, in order to make it clear, I mean, how crazy the inequality is in
26:09America, I want to give you some examples of what Roe and my 5% wealth tax on billionaires would
26:16do.
26:17Over a 10 year period, this bill would raise more than $4.4 trillion.
26:25And this is what it would do.
26:27Listen to this.
26:28In the first year, we would provide every man, woman and child in this country, in a household making $150
26:36,000 or less, a $3,000 direct payment.
26:40Okay?
26:43Family of four, $12,000 in the first year.
26:49This legislation would enable us to end homelessness and the housing crisis by building 7 million units of low income
27:05and affordable housing.
27:10This bill would expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing.
27:19This bill would provide universal childcare throughout the country.
27:28This bill would strengthen public education and attract the best and the brightest into teaching by ensuring that no teacher
27:38in America makes less than $60,000 a year.