WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders is proposing a significant hike in taxes on the very wealthiest Americans, pitching an expanded estate tax that his office estimates would hit 588 of the nation's billionaires.
Sanders' plan is the latest in a series of proposals from Democratic presidential contenders to combat income inequality by shifting tax burdens to the upper class. Just last week, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed taxing the net worth of an estimated 75,000 "ultra-millionaires."
Sanders has yet to reveal whether he plans to compete with Warren in 2020's crowded Democratic presidential primary. But his new tax plan signals that he plans to be a core part of a debate on taxing the wealthy that he connects back to his first presidential run, in 2016.
