Bernie Sanders Rallies Support For Wealth Tax In California: ‘enough Is Enough’

LOS ANGELES — Blasting billionaires as “oligarchs” whose “greed and arrogance and moral turpitude” threatens American society, Bernie Sanders rallied support here Wednesday night for a proposed wealth tax roiling politics in California.

“Do you know what the most significant addiction crisis in America is today? It is the greed of the billionaire class,” the Vermont senator and progressive champion told a boisterous crowd in a blistering speech at the Wiltern Theatre in the city’s Koreatown section. “For these people, enough is never enough. They are dedicated to accumulating more and more wealth and power, and they do that no matter what harm they bring to working families, to our children and to our parents.”

Sanders has long been popular in this heavily Democratic city, drawing large crowds and a devoted following during his 2016 and 2020 presidential runs. Now, the independent senator is injecting himself into a high-wattage fight over a proposed ballot initiative that would impose a one-time, 5 percent tax on billionaires’ assets.

That places Sanders opposite Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely presidential contender popular among Democrats who has come out forcefully against the prospective tax, arguing that it could drive billionaires from California, depriving the state of valuable income tax revenue.

The initiative from SEIU-UHW, the California Billionaire Tax Act, has yet to qualify for the November ballot, and Sanders’ presence at the 1,850-seat theater was a boon for the union, whose members waved signs that read “Stop The Healthcare Collapse,” and “Support Public Education.”

Sanders said that confronting “the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality” in the U.S. is “the most important economic and moral issue of our time.” He singled out several high-profile billionaires, among them Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison. Sanders also lit into Elon Musk at multiple points during his speech, noting the X owner’s work to help elect President Donald Trump.

“At a time when the wealth and power of the billionaire class has never been greater, we are here today to send a very clear and profound message to them, and that is: enough is enough,” the senator said.

It’s shaping up to be a fight: Opponents of the wealth tax are pushing out digital ads highlighting opposition from Democrats, while a separate effort is working to undercut the tax proposal with competing ballot measures.

In a statement, Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, which opposes the wealth tax, said it “isn’t just a swipe at California’s most successful entrepreneurs; it’s a tax no one can afford because it weakens the entire economic ecosystem that supports jobs, investment, wages, and public services for everyday Californians.”

Before Sanders’ speech, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, long known for his progressive activism, took the Wiltern stage to play several protest anthems — including ones by Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen and, of course, Rage — lacing his between-song banter with entreaties to stand up to Trump and drive out fascism.

But the biggest cheers of the night were reserved for Sanders, who ended his remarks by connecting the recent protests in Minneapolis over the fatal shootings of two people by federal agents to the activism in California that he said could propel the wealth tax to victory.

“Let's go forward together,” he said. “Let's win this thing.”