{"id":46763,"date":"2026-02-19T17:56:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46763"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:56:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:56:32","slug":"sanders-to-rally-for-billionaire-tax-in-california-as-crypto-industry-joins-newsom-in-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/sanders-to-rally-for-billionaire-tax-in-california-as-crypto-industry-joins-newsom-in-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanders to Rally for Billionaire Tax in California as Crypto Industry Joins Newsom in Opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"SANDERSAOC\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) speaks at a rally in Folsom, California on April 15, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Paul Kuroda for The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile US billionaires became $1.5 trillion richer last year, the average worker in America has just $955 in retirement savings,\u201d said Sen. Bernie Sanders. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ll be in LA this week fighting for a wealth tax on billionaires.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 18, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> is set to rally in California on Wednesday with frontline healthcare<\/a> workers<\/a> and other supporters of a proposed ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of the roughly 200 billionaires who reside in the Golden State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime champion of efforts to redress massive income and wealth inequality<\/a> nationwide, said in a statement ahead of Wednesday\u2019s rally that he \u201cstrongly\u201d supports the proposed wealth tax<\/a> in California, which is home to more billionaires than any other state in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Progressives-Mobilize-in-Los-Angeles\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It Should Be Common Sense\u2019: Sanders to Headline Billionaire Tax Campaign Kickoff in California<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Sen.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sanders to Oligarchs Opposing California Billionaire Tax: \u2018You\u2019re Treading on Very, Very Thin Ice\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile US billionaires became $1.5 trillion richer last year, the average worker in America has just $955 in retirement savings and 21% of seniors are trying to survive on less than $15,000 a year,\u201d Sanders wrote in a social media<\/a> post earlier this week. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ll be in LA this week fighting for a wealth tax on billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders\u2019 appearance at Wednesday\u2019s rally in Los Angeles, which is set to begin at 5 pm local time, comes as organizers behind the California wealth tax push are working to collect the roughly 875,000 signatures required to get the proposal on the November ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnion leaders believe the visit by Mr. Sanders will energize their campaign, which has already trained more than 1,000 volunteers and doubled the amount per signature that it is paying petition circulators,\u201d the New York Times<\/a><\/em> reported<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very grateful for the support of US Sen. Sanders, who for years has been telling the truth about the threat that income inequality<\/a> poses to our nation\u2014and to working people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Times<\/em> also reported that \u201can opposition campaign committee with ties to the crypto industry, called Golden State Promise<\/a>, officially formed on Friday\u201d and \u201cwas expected to report this week $10 million in donations, including $5 million from Chris Larsen, a founder of the cryptocurrency company Ripple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal has also drawn opposition from Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a>, who has close ties to Silicon Valley elites\u2014some of the most vocal opponents<\/a> of the state wealth tax plan. (Notably, the billionaire CEO of the most valuable company in the world, Nvidia, said<\/a> earlier this year that he is \u201cperfectly fine\u201d with the proposal as others in his class pumped millions<\/a> into the effort to defeat it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom, widely seen as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, has publicly vowed to defeat the proposed wealth tax, which is aimed at raising funds to prevent a looming healthcare crisis spurred by federal Medicaid<\/a> cuts that US President Donald Trump<\/a> and congressional Republicans<\/a> approved last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will be defeated\u2014there\u2019s no question in my mind,\u201d Newsom said in January. \u201cI\u2019ll do what I have to do to protect the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proponents of the tax estimate that it would raise around $100 billion in revenue\u2014much of which would be placed in a \u201cBillionaire Tax Health Account\u201d designed to help shore up the state\u2019s healthcare system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayra Castaneda, an Ultrasound Technologist at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, said that \u201cwe are very grateful for the support of US Sen. Sanders, who for years has been telling the truth about the threat that income inequality<\/a> poses to our nation\u2014and to working people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we let these healthcare cuts stand, my patients will suffer. Hospitals and ERs will close, others will be strained by taking on more patients, and people will lose access to life-saving care,\u201d said\u00a0Castaneda.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThis is all avoidable if billionaires just pay their fair share in California, so I\u2019m going to do whatever is in my power to see this proposal pass in November. I\u2019ll be telling my story alongside Sen. Sanders and urging my fellow Californians to take action to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) speaks at a rally in Folsom, California on April 15, 2025. \u00a0(Photo by Paul Kuroda for The Washington Post via Getty Images) \u201cWhile US billionaires became $1.5 trillion richer last year, the average worker in America has just $955 in retirement savings,\u201d said Sen. Bernie… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46764,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46763\/revisions\/46764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}