Taxing millionaires and billionaires is a political no brainer for Democrats

April 15, as you are all painfully aware, is the deadline for filing your federal tax returns. The tax collector cometh but the American financial elite have nothing to fear. Everybody else is shaking in their boots, including the people who struggle to fight for the health, wealth and safety of their beleaguered families.

The numbers speak for themselves.

Donald Trump’s performance has given lie to his campaign promise to reduce prices on Day One of his second term. Last month, wholesale inflation rose by 4 percent driven by a 15.7 percent increase in gas prices. The senior economist for Nerd Wallet, Elizabeth Renter wrote, “Inflation wasn’t fully under control before the war, and it’s certainly not contained now.”

A new national survey for The Economist indicated that two out of every three Americans favor additional taxation on people making more than 1 million dollars a year. This is a political no brainer for Democrats. Even a majority of Republicans support the plan. The same poll revealed that the average person hasn’t felt any significant relief from the Trump tax law of 2021 that cut taxes for aristocrats and plutocrats.

Data from the Federal Reserve Board demonstrates that income inequality in the U.S. reached its widest gap since 1989. The top 1 percent of earners held $55 trillion in assets which is roughly equal to the holdings of other 99 percent. Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody Analytics told CBS News “Household income is highly concentrated and becoming even more concentrated.”

This unholy concentration of wealth has occurred even though worker productivity has risen. Americans are working harder but getting paid less for the fruits of their labors. Research released last month by the Economic Policy Institute showed that the gap between a typical worker’s pay and productivity has risen dramatically since 1979.

Since Ronald Reagan became president in 1981 the tax code has undergone radical changes which generously provided low taxes for the ultrarich and big business and hurt everyone else. Donald Trump finished the hit job on the public when he proposed and Congress passed another round of tax breaks for bankers and billionaires.

The money crunch kicked started the campaign for tax reform and equity that now is underway in the nation’s capital and across our great nation. Something had to give. Now help for the financially pressed public is on the way courtesy of Democrats and progressives.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) proposed legislation that would place a tax surcharge on billionaires. The states are the laboratories of democracy and they have responded to public frustration towards big tax breaks for the wealthy. The state of Washington just increased taxes on millionaires. Massachusetts has a similar law on the books. Californians will have the opportunity to pass a surcharge on the well to do on the ballot this year.

The Constitution requires tax legislation to originate in the peoples’ House so Democrats will have the home court advantage for the fight for financial relief if they take control of the House of Representatives after this year’s midterm elections. My party must take this heaven-sent opportunity to press for tax relief for low- and middle-income Americans.

The early 21st Century is era of wretched excess. The monied elite own their own islands and the massive yachts that ferry them back and forth in luxury while most people struggle to feed their kids. This crisis is evocative of the Gilded Age of gross financial injustice in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Pent up anger led to the economic reforms of the Populist Revolt, the Progressive Era and the New Deal.

These reforms created a political coalition that lasted a full generation. Democrats now have the opportunity to unleash another round of progressive economic populism that will help people stand up and step out of the money pit and renew the allegiance of middle-class Americans to the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that lifted them out of a financial depression.

Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications. He writes weekly for The Hill and hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.

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