Bernie Sanders Urges Californians to Support Billionaires Tax: ‘Enough is Enough’
At a California rally on Wednesday night, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont urged voters to support a proposed billionaires tax aimed at the state’s ultra-wealthy as part of a broader push to address economic inequality and fund critical public services.
Sanders made an appearance at The Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, marking the formal launch of a campaign to qualify the California Billionaire Tax Act for the November 2026 ballot. The Vermont senator framed the proposed tax as more than a fiscal policy debate. He characterized it as a referendum on the power of what he called the billionaire class.
The initiative Sanders is campaigning for would impose a one-time 5 percent tax on the net worth of Californians worth more than $1 billion, including assets such as stocks, art, real estate, and business holdings. Its supporters estimate the measure could raise to $100 billion over five years, with 90 percent of revenue dedicated to state health care programs and the remainder for education and food assistance.
The senator told a packed audience that the wealthiest individuals in America have “created huge businesses with revolutionary technologies” but have grown distant from broader society and democratic accountability. “Do you know what the most significant addiction crisis in America is today? It is the greed of the billionaire class,” Sanders told the audience.
“The billionaire class no longer sees itself as part of American society,” Sanders said to applause, comparing today’s ultra-rich to historical oligarchs who believed they were above democratic governance.
Support for the proposal has been bolstered by labor unions, particularly the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which is leading the signature collection effort to place the measure on the ballot. Union members at the rally circulated petitions and wore “Tax the Billionaires” shirts, blending grassroots organizing with Sanders’s national profile.
Healthcare advocates at the event emphasized the urgency of revenue for state services facing cuts. Obstetrician Dr. Jackline Lasola told the crowd that funding was needed to maintain hospital staffing amid projected federal Medicaid funding reductions, implicitly linking the wealth tax to broader concerns about public health infrastructure. California Governor Gavin Newsom and other leading Democrats have opposed the wealth tax, warning it could drive wealthy residents and businesses out of the state and destabilize the economy.
Opponents like the governor and various business executives are already mobilizing, crafting competing ballot measures and political campaigns aimed at blocking the wealth tax’s inclusion on the ballot or weakening its provisions. Meanwhile, Sanders plans to expand his California visit with engagements that include discussions on artificial intelligence’s impact on workers and additional rallies that tie economic justice to broader progressive policy goals.
