Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act
Sponsored By: Senator Bernie Sanders
Introduced
Summary
A 5% wealth tax on billionaires would fund broad expansions in health, child care, and affordability programs. It pairs a new annual wealth tax with Medicare dental, hearing, and vision coverage, a universal birth‑to‑five child care entitlement, expanded premium subsidies, and affordability rebates.
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- Parents and children: would guarantee subsidized child care for eligible children under age six starting October 1, 2026. Families would face sliding fees up to 7% of income while the federal share would cover 90% of direct care costs.
- Medicare beneficiaries: would gain dental, hearing, and vision benefits with dentures covered beginning January 1, 2027 and other services starting January 1, 2028. Preventive dental care would be paid at 100% and most other services at 80% coinsurance.
- Very wealthy taxpayers: would face a 5% annual tax on net assets above $1 billion, plus new asset reporting, a federal wealth registry, valuation rules, and special rules for trusts and expatriation.
*Overall, the bill would increase federal spending through new program expansions and explicit appropriations.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 1 costs, 1 mixed.
More Medicaid support for HCBS
If enacted, States that meet new HCBS program rules would get an 8 percentage-point FMAP increase for qualifying home and community-based services, capped so total FMAP does not exceed 95%. States that implement qualifying self-directed programs would get an extra 2 percentage points for the first six fiscal quarters. Certain administrative and planning costs would get at least 80% federal matching through September 30, 2036. The bill would fund planning and quality work with appropriations (including $130 million for planning grants and other small FY2027 amounts) and would make spousal impoverishment protections permanent for HCBS recipients.
Universal Birth-to-Five child care
If enacted, beginning October 1, 2026 eligible children under age 6 in approved States, territories, and Tribes would be entitled to direct child care services. The federal government would pay 90% of direct child care service costs each quarter and the statute authorizes $20 billion in FY2026 for local grants and Head Start awards. States must reserve 5–10% of program funds for quality and supply activities, issue child care certificates for families, meet reporting and maintenance-of-effort rules, and certify payment rates using a valid cost model within three years. To get additional matching money, States must offer self-directed hiring programs for direct care workers.
Higher starting pay for teachers
If enacted, the bill would set a minimum annual base salary of $60,000 for full-time first-year public school teachers for fiscal years 2027 through 2031. It would create a federal grant program starting in FY2027 to help States raise teacher pay (the bill authorizes $14.5 billion for FY2027, with yearly adjustments thereafter). States must submit public plans and meet the salary requirements within three years. The law would allow small reservations for technical help and statewide pay efforts and would preserve collective bargaining rights while requiring compliance with the salary rules.
5% wealth tax and reporting
If enacted, the bill would impose an annual 5% tax on the net value of global assets for any individual or trust with more than $1 billion in year-end net assets (married couples treated as one taxpayer). The bill would create an ownership registry and expanded asset reporting for public stock, digital assets, private business shares, and U.S. real estate, require high audit coverage (at least 50% of taxpayers subject to the tax), and fund enforcement equal to 1% of wealth tax revenues. It would also set special rules for estates, trusts, nonresident noncitizens, and a 60% rate for covered expatriates in the year of expatriation, and allow a limited valuation election for hard-to-value assets but not in consecutive years.
New Medicare dental, hearing, vision
If enacted, Medicare Part B would add dental, hearing, and routine vision coverage. Dentures would be covered starting January 1, 2027; most dental, hearing, and vision services would start January 1, 2028. Preventive dental care would be paid at 100%; other dental and hearing services would generally have 20% beneficiary coinsurance and payment limits tied to fee schedules or a government supply schedule. The bill would fund implementation ($900 million for dental, $370 million for hearing, $500 million for vision in FY2026), set limits on frequency and payment caps, and require phased competitive buying deadlines. From 2027–2031 the government would use a special Part B premium calculation that phases in added costs (0% in 2027–28, then 25%/50%/75% for 2029–2031).
One-time $3,000 affordability rebate
If enacted, the bill would provide an affordability rebate for tax year 2026: $3,000 for single filers, $6,000 for joint filers, plus $3,000 for each dependent claimed in the year. This would be a one-time payment for 2026 and the statute updates related textual references to reflect these amounts.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Bernie Sanders
VT • I
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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