By Nikhila Natarajan

New York, Aug 8 (IANS): Three Senators, led by Bernie Sanders, have attracted global attention for introducing the "Make Billionaires Pay Act," aiming to tax US tech's top leaders tens of billions of dollars in wealth made during the coronavirus pandemic.

The "Make Billionaires Pay Act" would impose a one-time 60 per cent tax on wealth gains made by billionaires between March 18, 2020, and January 1, 2021.

Riding growing global despair about inequity, the Senators suggest that funds would be used to pay for out-of-pocket health-care expenses for all Americans for a year. Besides Sanders, the Senators are Ed Markey and Kirsten Gillibrand.

"Over and over again, we have been told that we cannot possibly afford to guarantee healthcare as a right by moving to a Medicare for All system - even on a temporary basis during the worst public health emergency in over a hundred years. Well, it turns out that is not quite accurate," a post on Sanders' Senate page argued.

"While a record-breaking 5.4 million Americans recently lost their health insurance, 467 billionaires in our country increased their wealth by an estimated $731.8 billion during the pandemic. Incredibly, as a result of the Trump tax giveaway to the rich, these billionaires currently pay a lower effective tax rate than teachers or truck drivers."

Citing the Americans for Tax Fairness and Institute for Policy, Sanders said: "If we taxed 60 per cent 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 (based on an estimate from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget).

"Yes, that's right. By taxing 60 per cent of the wealth gains made by just 467 billionaires during this horrific pandemic, we could guarantee healthcare as a right for an entire year. And billionaires would still be able to pocket more than $310.1 billion in wealth gains during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression."

Illustrative examples cited include Jeff Bezos, whose wealth has gone up by 63 per cent or $71.3 billion during the pandemic, paying a one-time wealth tax of $42.8 billion; Elon Musk, whose wealth has nearly tripled during the pandemic from $24.6 billion to $70.5 billion, would pay a one-time wealth tax of $27.5 billion; Mark Zuckerberg, who is now worth $92.7 billion, up from $54.7 billion, would pay a one-time wealth tax of $22.8 billion and the Walton family, the wealthiest family in America, which has seen their wealth grow by $21.5 billion, would pay a one-time wealth tax of $12.9 billion.

"At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when so many of our people are hurting, it is time to fundamentally change our national priorities. Instead of more tax breaks for the rich while more Americans die because they cannot afford to go to a doctor, let us expand Medicare and save lives by demanding that billionaires pay their fair share of taxes."

Aiming to distinguish the not-so-super-rich from their moves, those with net worth of less than $1 billion wouldn't pay more in taxes. While Zuckerberg, Bezos and the Waltons haven't yet reacted, Musk took the challenge head on, with a meme. "Everytime the Bernster mentions a free government program, chug somebody else's beer", the irrepressible billionaire tweeted back.