Senator Bernie Sanders headlined the California Billionaires Tax Act campaign kickoff rally at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on Feb. 18.
Sanders gave an impassioned speech to a packed auditorium to support a tax initiative, calling for California billionaires to pay a one-time 5% tax on their total wealth.
“We all know people addicted to drugs, addicted to alcohol, addicted to tobacco and many serious addiction problems. But do you know what the most significant addiction crisis in America is today?” Sanders asked the crowd. “It is the greed of the billionaire class.”
The proposed Nov. 3 ballot measure would ensure the roughly 200 billionaires living in California pay a 5% tax on their total wealth over five years from 2027-2031. The plan generates $100 billion dollars in revenue for the state and would go towards funding healthcare and public education, according to Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW). The measure targets people with extreme accumulated wealth and not annual earnings.
Sanders said Americans need to confront the level of income and wealth inequality, explaining what he thought was the biggest issue in the country today.
“The billionaire class no longer sees itself as part of American society,” Sanders said to a cheering crowd. “They see themselves as something separate and apart, like the oligarchs of the 18th Century. The kings and the queens and the czars. These guys believe they have the divine right to rule and are no longer subject to democratic governance.”
“These billionaires are going to learn that we are still living in a democratic society where the people have the power,” Sanders added.
Guitarist and activist Tom Morello opened the rally with a short solo set. He covered Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and ended the set with Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name.”
“We are living in a time where ideas are a crime, where lifestyle is a crime and where skin color is a crime,” Morello said before performing.
Attendees were also given free shirts, signs and buttons.
SEIU-UHW is petitioning to get the bill on the November ballot. They require 874,641 signatures to do it.
“The people of California can show the people of America and people throughout the world that when we stand together, we can take on the oligarchs and the billionaires,” Sanders said to end his speech.
