U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) speaks to the media outside of the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, on the day Bill Clinton appears for a deposition in the House Oversight Committee investigation of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Chappaqua, New York, U.S., February 27, 2026.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna plan to introduce a bill to impose a federal wealth tax on billionaires, according to the senator’s office.
The push from Sanders, I-Vt., and Khanna, D-Calif., for a federal wealth tax comes as the idea of taxing billionaires gains cachet in Democratic states across the country. While progressives like Sanders have long called for taxing the rich at higher rates, many Democrats are now seizing on refreshed anti-billionaire animus as they campaign against Republicans and President Donald Trump on an affordability agenda.
A potential California ballot measure to tax billionaires in the state has spooked some of the state’s wealthy and prompted some of its elites to flee. Khanna’s support for the proposed California ballot measure to impose a wealth tax on billionaires recently caused some of the Silicon Valley representative’s longtime tech supporters to threaten to drop their support of him.
According to Sanders’ office, the planned tax would raise $4.4 trillion in federal revenues without hiking taxes on any Americans with a net worth of less than $1 billion. The revenue would then be invested to benefit working families, children, the elderly and other vulnerable populations.
Sanders has recently travelled to California to stump for the potential ballot measure.