The Insidiousness of the Sanders’ Wealth Tax

So-called “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders has a novel approach to taxation up his sleeve, just waiting to be unleashed on America. He calls it a wealth tax, which is fundamentally different from all mainstream tax proposals. It is a tax on all assets. Every single penny a man has to his name in any form is under the gun.

At issue is not so much the tax itself (however odious it may be,) but, rather, the naked intention of mass wealth expropriation behind it. On his campaign platform, under the tab marked “tax on extreme wealth,” are the details of his plan which go as follows:

• “Establish an annual tax on the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. households.
• Only apply to net worth of over $32 million, and anyone who has a net worth of less than $32 million, would not see their taxes go up at all under this plan.
• Will raise an estimated $4.35 trillion over the next decade and cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years, which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small privileged class.
• Ensure that the wealthy are not able to evade the tax by implementing strong enforcement policies.”[1]

Plain-as-day in the platform plank is his explicit desire to confiscate, not for the purpose of giving aid to the people, but for confiscation’s sake. If this was, in fact, about funding his ridiculous central plan, he would make no mention of its deleterious effect on the economic well being of the richest Americans. Yet, he does just that with the words: “and cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years, which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small privileged class.” The focus of this proposal is not on any economic good that the tax will fund. There is no word of new hospitals that he would surely be in favor of, no greater alms to the poor which he would also favor, nor foreign aid which he would, no doubt, favor as well. None of that appears. Instead, the entire plank of the “extreme wealth tax” is a statement of opprobrium for the wealthy.

What this distills down is that Sanders is looking to confiscate the wealth of America’s richest citizens. He is not looking to do it as a means to an end; i.e., the motivation is not to fund his central plan. With his own words as his own indictment, he proclaims that the goal of his tax is not lifting some people up, but pulling others down – irrespective of who it helps. Without a doubt, Sanders will find a use for those trillions. If pushed on the sheer avarice of his proposal, he will, of course, say the dollars are destined for X good cause which justifies it. But, his words to the contrary are right there on his campaign website saying, in no uncertain terms, that this tax is meant to ruin the rich.

Taxation for taxation’s sake has no place in good government or the American Republic. The author categorically urges the reader to reject this madness. Reject Socialism. Reject Sanders.

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