Sanders tweets he wants to tax titans’ ‘obscene’ wealth gains

Senator Bernie Sanders speaks via teleconference during a hearing in Washington, DC, on June 30. Sanders wrote recently that a 60% tax on the windfall gains from 467 billionaires between March 18 and Aug 3 could raise more than US$420bil (RM1.76tril). —Al Drago/POOL/AFP

US Senator Bernie Sanders said he will introduce legislation to tax what he called the "obscene wealth gains” from billionaires during the coronavirus crisis.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, made the announcement in a Twitter post Aug 5 evening. Last year, while running for the Democratic nomination, Sanders embraced a proposal that would tax fortunes above US$32mil (RM134.03mil) at 1%, with an increasing rate that would top out at 8% over US$10bil (RM41.89bil).